Personal Computing Today (1984-07)

quantum
leap for
l Sinclair?

AN ARGUS SPECIALIST PUBLICATION■

Personal

July 1984

200

which firm does

plus

programs for
BBC and Texas

1

Software \
\ Reviews

Gomes galore for
leisure and lessons

Programming

0 VIC 20 basic
procedures
explained

or Quality i

U And
innovation

COMMODORE

TRADE ENQUIRIES: ANIROG SOFTWARE LTD. ‘29 WEST HILL DARTFORD KENT (0322)92513/8

MAIL ORDER: 8 HIGH STREET HORLEY SURREY 24 HOUR CREDIT CARD SALES HORLEY (02934) 6083
PAYMENT BY CHEQUE P.O. ACCESS/VISA 50p POSTAGE & PACKAGING

VOLUME 2 NUMBER 12 JULY 1984

Editor:

Elspeth Joiner

Deputy Editor:

Jane Price
Software Assistant:

Simon Rockman
Advertisement Manager:

Mike Segrue
Sales Executive
Brendan Halligan
Copy Controller
Ann McDermott
Managing Editor:

Ron Harris

Origination and design by:

MM Design

Chief Executive:

T J Connell
Published by:

Argus Specialist Publications
Ltd.

1 Golden Square, London
W1R 3AB
01-437 0626

Printed by:

Alabaster Passmore & Sons
Ltd.

London and Maidstone

Distributed by:

Argus Press, Sales & Distribu¬
tion

Ltd, 12-18 Paul Street, London
EC2A 4JS

Personal Computing Today is normally
published on the first Friday in the month
preceding cover date. The contents of this
publication including all articles, designs,
plans, drawings and programs and all
copyright and other intellectual property
rights therein belong to Argus Specialist
Publications Limited. Ail rights conferred by
the Law of Copyright and other intellectual
property rights and by virtue of international
copyright conventions are specifically
reserved to Argus Specialist Publications
Limited and any reproduction requires the
prior written consent of the Company. ©
1 984 Argus Specialist Publications Ltd.

All reasonable care is taken in the prepara¬
tion of the magazine contents, but the
publishers cannot be held legally responsi¬
ble for errors. Where mistakes do occur, a
correction will normally be published as
soon as possible afterwards. All prices and
data contained in advertisements are ac¬
cepted by us in good faith as correct at time
of going to press. Neither the advertisers
nor the publishers can be held responsible,
however, for any variation affecting price or
availability which may occur after the
publication has closed for press.

Subscription Rates. UK
£14.00 including
postage. Airmail and other
rates upon application to
Personal Computing To¬
day, Infonet Ltd., Times
House, 179 The
Marlowes, Hemel Hemp¬
stead, Herts HP1 IBB.

The abundance of software houses in the U.K. is startling with more large
companies and individuals turning their skills to producing programs each
week. This, while increasing the choice of titles available to you, also has
the effect of causing confusion about who produces what and for which
micros! It's all very well to walk into your local software store if you've got
the time (and the inclination) to browse through their wealth of titles, but if
you are looking for a program to do a specific job on your micro, you need
to go directly to the potential producers. This is especially important with
educational, business and utility programs.

This month in Personal Computing Today you will find a directory of
software producers in the U.K. For each software house included, there are
details of the type of programs produced and which micros they are for. The
directory is meant to be a handy reference guide which you can keep. So
anytime you need a hand through the software jungle turn to the directory
and your problems will be solved quickly and easily.

So much has already been written about that all evasive beast — the
Sinclair QL. In this issue of Personal Computing Today we put all the theory
to the test and give this innovative micro a thoroughly practical examination.
Everyone has been speculating, now read what it is really capable of in
Personal Computing Today.

Also in Personal Computing Today this month is the start of a series of
articles on how to get your VIC20 to perform. For a complete beginner to
computing the control of the keyboard functions can be very confusing. The
author of these articles was once in that position too and his clear and
explicit instructions on how to use the colour codes starts off this
informative series which will continue through the summer months.

One of our interesting feature articles this month is based on the results of
the readers' survey which we published in the February issue. In conjunction
with lain Peacock of Heriot Watt University, we have collated all the replies
we received and the results provide some interesting reading about the state
of personal computing today!

Our Teach-in series continue with another lesson in machine code and
more about programming the Oric micro. As usual we have some excellent
programs for you to type into your own micro. Minefield and Bombshell are
particularly good and on the utilities front, there is a definitive character
definition program for the BBC. Plenty to keep you riveted, so turn over for a
list of the full contents and take your pick!

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I R I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

rrrr^rcrrrrrrrcrrrccrrcrcrrrrrcn

N€XT MONTH

Next Month.7

Previews of the August issue to whet your appetite.

CHE

News...8

Who's going up, who's falling down and what's
around. Reports in and abobt the world of home
computers.

FCATURC

nnn

Personal Computing Today.13

The results of our own Readers' Survey form the
basis of this informative article on the state of home
computing today.

BBC SOFTWARE

Characters by Design.18

‘ " defii _ " ' r ' -

This is the
the BBC.

initive character definition program for

TI99/4A SOFTWARE

Regatta.24

A novel strategy game written in unexpanded
BASIC. Plot your course directly to these pages.

Input.30

Tne pages where readers get their chance to alter
the snape of the magazine or simply find a voice for
their opinions.

m | I Software Selection.33

Looking for what to buy next? PCT's software

■rrriTrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

■ iqa 5i"i“rrrrrrrrrrrri"i“rrrrrri"rrrri-i

■rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

m mm mm mm mm mm mm mm ^m mm mam mm mm mm mm mm mam mm mm mam mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm

ON TEST ■ REFERENCE

The Sinclair QL.37

All the speculative opinions of the last few months
were put to the test when PCT carried out this ex¬
citing bench test. Read our report and gen up on
Sinclair's hottest machine.

SPECTRUM SOFTWARE

Bombshell ... . .44

An excellently written, exciting game for the 48K
machine.

TEACH IN

Popular Programming. ... 81

A useful article explaining how to get your work
published.

ON TEST

Testbed ............................ 85

We take a look at the choices of data storage
available to the home computer user and bench test
some of the systems.

AEFEAENCE

TEACH IN

CBM 64 SOFTWAAE

VIC20 for Beginners.. 49

To kick off this informative series on the VIC, the col¬
our codes of the micro are explained in very clear
stages.

Oric Options Part 4 ....52

This series moves on from screen manipulations to
the use of sound on the Oric micro.

Directory of Software Houses.. 61

Contact addresses for the majority of software pro¬
ducers in the U.K. along with details of what they
produce. An important reference guide for you to
keep.

Machine Code 64...73

We fill in the cracks in your understanding of this
essential tool for home programmers.

Minefield ..

Explosive action on the CBM machine!

Hardware Factfile.90

Specifications for home computers on the market.

TEACH IN

■

PRINTER EXTRAVAGANZA

ae< To^J 0 yi * c challenge you to find a better deal!

°

EPSON PRICE CRASH

EPSON RX80 (DOT MATRIX).£219 + VAT =

EPSON RX80FT (DOT MATRIX) .£247 + VAT =

EPSON FX80 (DOT MATRIX).£324 + VAT =

EPSON MX100 (DOT MATRIX) .£355 + VAT =

EPSON RX100 (DOT MATRIX) .£385 + VAT =

EPSON FX100 (DOT MATRIX) .£499 + VAT =

As FX100 now in very short supply , telephone for alternatives

MAKING WAY FOR THE NEW

DOT MATRIX PRINTERS

The power behind the printed word.

STAR GEMINI 10X. £198 + VAT = *227.70

STAR DELTA 10 . £325 + VAT = *37375

STAR GEMINI 15X •••••••••••••.. fling for stupid prices NOW

STAR DELTA 15 . £499 + VAT = *57385

WE WILL MATCH ANY GENUINE PRICE ADVERTISED

SCI(UK) IS NEVER BEATEN ON PRICE

MANY MORE PRINTERS AVAILABLE - 1000's OF SC I (UK) BARGAINS

SEND NOW FOR THE FAMOUS SCI(UK) CATALOGUE

for cheapest prices telephone 0730 63741 or 0730 61745

MORE SCI(l)K) BARGAINS

SHINWA CP80.£179 + VAT — *205.85

BROTHER EP44_£179 + VAT — £205.85

CPP 40 Colour printer/ plotter • • • £109 +VAT — *125.35

RITEMAN A1.£229 + VAT = £263.35

FIDELITY 14" __ , /AT _

Colour monitor/video •••••••• IcIOlI i V/\ 1 — £217.35

DAISYWHEEL PRINTERS

JUKI 6100 . • • • phone for stupid price

DAISEYSTEP 2000 ... £279 + VAT — £320.85
UCHIDA DWX305 ... £279 + VAT = £320.85
BROTHER HR 15 • • • • Ring for stupid price. NOW

New from the world famous CANON Company

CANON 1080A NLQ DM best value ever at . .£319 + VAT

CANON 1156A New wide bodied NLQ DM

Sensational value at ... ......£399 + VAT

jWe

■cor

■API

have interfaces for all types of
computers, including CBM 64, VIC 20,

PLE, TRS 80, IBM, BBC, SPECTRUM, QL, etc.1

24 HOUR SECURICOR DELIVERY £9.50 plus VAT • BANKERS ORDERS, BUILDING SOCIETY CHEQUES, POSTAL ORDERS - SAME DAY
ALL ORDERS COVERED BY THE MAIL ORDER PROTECTION SCHEME • NATIONWIDE MAINTENANCE CONRACTS ARRANGED

EDUCATIONAL DISCOUNTS VERY WELCOME

Its SUNDAY - Do you realise you can order NOW - We are open 7 DAYS A WEEK.

DEALER ENQUIRIES
WELCOME
WRITE FOR DETAILS

SCI (UK)

SCI (UK) FREEPOST (No Stamp needed)

PETERSFIELD HANTS GU32 2BR

0730 61745
0730 63741

EXPORT ENQUIRIES
NO TAX

DELIVERY AT COST

Personal callers welcomed. Unit 1 6, Inmans Lane. Sheet. PETERSFIELD. Hants. TELEX 86626 MYNEWS G

6

Personal Computing Today July 1984

I I I I I I I I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I 1 I

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrijj
rrrrrrrcrrcrrrrrrrcrcrrr* i
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri §

Next Month

Oric Disk
Decisions

Our hardware review next
month will concentrate on
the disk drives available
for the Oric and Atmos
computers. Oric's own
long awaited disk drives
have been launched and
their performance will be
compared to that of a
competitive unit, the Byte
Drive 500 designed and
manufactured by ITL
Kathmill Ltd., who also
produce systems for the
BBC micro.

Both units cost less
than £300 complete and
have similar storage
capacities of about
160K-bytes per side of
disk. But how do they per¬
form? Order your copy of
the August issue of Per¬
sonal Computing Today
today to find the answer.

Drawing Devices

Also next month we'll
be taking a look at some
of the hardware and soft¬
ware around which turns
your micro into a drawing
machine. Graphics tech¬
nology has improved con¬
siderably over recent
months and there are now
many inexpensive peri¬
pherals and software
packages, from com¬
prehensive drawing pro¬
grams to the sensational
and professionally orien¬
tated graphics boards and
utilities. Make more of
your micro's capabilities
and gen up on how to do
this by reading August's
PCT.

'Edsoft' Scene

Computers in educa¬
tion are not new. Now
even primary school
children use them as tools
for learning. Next month
you can read an article by
an experienced educa¬
tional software supplier

about the 'edsoft' scene,
the state it's at and where
it's going. Don't get left
behind in the education
race. Catch up with PCT.

As usual the August
issue of PCT will be pack¬
ed with programs for you
to put into your own
micro,along with detailed
documentation so you

can learn more about pro¬
gramming while having
fun! Reviews of software
(games and educational)
abound and there will be
further 'teach-in' articles
for the CBM64, VIC20
and Oric. So, fill in your
advance order form below
and make sure of your
August copy now.

i i i a i i i i i i i i i

, _ | : i : i : i :i" | " | " | " | " | "r , " , "rr | " | “ | " | "r | " | " | " | " | " | "i“i“i“i"i“i

i”i"i"i"ri"rrrrrrrri"i“i“i"i"rrrrrrrrrrri“i"i

Epson Plot Their Way

Four new printers have been announced by leading
printer manufacturer Epson, and exciting packages
they are too.

There are two new thermal printers aimed at the
home user. The P40 is a compact dot matrix model
which uses thermal paper and has 40 columns as
standard. It will cost only £95 plus VAT and will be
fully available in the U.K. in August. The P80 is a
thermal transfer printer with a true 60 column
capacity and accepts both plain and thermal paper. It
runs at 45 characters per second, printing in both
text and graphics mode, and can operate with or
without ribbon cassettes. This will retail at £160
plus VAT and will be available in October. Both ther¬
mal printers feature rechargeable batteries.

More upmarket, but no less interesting for that,
is their new colour printer, the JX-80 which has the
useful feature of being able to automatically default
to monochrome. It is a high speed dot matrix model
running at 1 60 characters per second and capable of
producing up to seven colours. Other features are
high resolution graphics, a wide choice of interna¬
tional character sets and a variety of print styles and
sizes. The JX-80 will be available in July and will
retail at £560 plus VAT. Also announced, and
available in August is a colour plotter retailing at
£400 plus VAT.

The Rochdale based soft¬
ware house of A & F are
confident enough of a
new software protection
procedure to incorporate
it into all their products.
The idea of this system
was the brainchild of Jim
Lamont, whose recent
hardware anti-piracy pro¬
tection system was con¬
fiscated by the Ministry of
Defence leading to an out¬
cry in the Press.

A 8- F developed Mr
Lamont's software pro¬
tection code to a stage
where, they say, it would
require an enormous
amount of computer time
and equipment to crack it.
They believe it would take
their own development
engineers several weeks
to get into the system and
they know how it works.
It is hoped that this
system will prevent
unlawful duplication of
programs thereby increas¬
ing legitimate sales. We
hope it's successful.

I I I i 1 I I I I I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

Diary Dates

June 7th-9th at the
Novotel London Hotel,
Hammersmith, London
W6 are the dates of the
5th International Com¬
modore Computer Show.

Melbourne House
Publishers have extended

the closing date for en¬
tries to their HURG com¬
petition. Game designers
will now have until 30th
June, 1 984 to win the
prize of £3,000. Each
month until the closing
date, Melbourne House
will also choose a £250
prize winner.

Amstrad Go Visual

The announcement that this leading manufacturer of
budget-priced Hi-Fi systems was to launch a com¬
puter was met with a fair amount of sceptism by
staff in these offices. Could they succeed at produc¬
ing precision electronic equipment? A ZX80 A, CP/M
compatible 64K system was nothing new and from
past experience of new computer launches we ex¬
pected it to be under developed and not yet available
to the public. But we were wrong on all counts.

Amstrad have gone about developing their
machine (the CPC464) in a very sensible way allow¬
ing the designers a lot of flexibility which has
resulted in many advanced features. The micro has a
high resolution screen (640 x200 — two colour)
with up to 27 colours and an 80 column text
feature. The BASIC is fast and from a quick dabble,
very nice to use with explicit error messages and a
good screen editor, which is a cross between the
Oric, Commodore and BBC editors. It has a facility
for up to eight windows, but best all, you can write
programs using the interrupt from BASIC. This is a
very powerful tool, enabling the micro to do a par¬
ticular job at regular intervals regardless of what the
rest of the program is doing. The BASIC is very fast,
and claims to be a match for the BBC. Although the
sound is a little 'tinny' it is quite acceptable by home
computer standards.

500

400

300

200

100

0

Lower Priced Software May Mean
Mediocrity

This was the warning issued by Derek Meakin, head
of National Micro Centres, in a recent press release.
He made his announcement following the news that
a new software company, Mastertronic, aims to
flood the market with games costing only £1 .99 —
more than £5 below ihe average market price of
cassette software.

Mr Meakin fears that other software companies
will follow suit by entering into a cut-throat price
war. While it has obvious attractions to the con¬
sumer, software houses, particularly the smaller
ones, already operate on a very tight budget and
may well be driven to bankruptcy. Mr Meakin said
"One thing that is very certain is that the people who
are really going to feel the pinch are software
writers, many of them freelancers. They certainly
won't want to spend many months dreaming up
some new masterpiece, as they do at the moment, if
all they are going to get are mediocre royalties. So
this means that quality — and standards — will slide
rapidly".

Mastertronic's announcement comes hot on the
heels of Imagine's decision not to implement their
planned dramatic price cuts (from £5.50 to £3.95)
because they felt that such an action could have put
many of their less profitable competitors out of
business.

Maybe protection schemes like the one
employed by A & F Software will safeguard com¬
panies' revenue and enable them to bear some price
cutting in the future.

> I use BBC Basic
The leading
computer
language in

schools'

The new Electron from Acorn.
Ask any child at school why

it’s worth £ 199 .

Most British children have one thing in common the Electron is such an exceptional machine
with the new Electron microcomputer: they speak at the price
the same language.

You see, the Electron is the first

microxemotely in this price range to / 1 - 1 ‘ \ for the technically minded

k are in the box opposite.)

The Electron is neat and compact. Yet it
_____ - As fast and powerful. (Full details.

use BBC Basic, the computer
language that is rapidly becoming
the standard in British schools.

But that's not all. Most
children will feel at home with
the Electron as soon as they lay
hands on it.

This is because it has
developed out of the Micro that
has been chosen by over 80% of
schools participating in the
Government’s current Micros In
Schools project. It has a similar
keyboard and has most of the
functions of this much acclaimed
(but naturally, more expensive) machine.

So now children will be able to continue their
computer studies at home. They’ll be able to use the
same educational programs they use at school. And,
if asked nicely, they’ll be able to help willing adults
take their first steps into computing.

All this for only £199.

A micro technolo g y break-through.

And now a few
reasons for adults why

MOUJ VOOVE mastered monsters,

UiE COULD MOVE OM TO MOWEV
MANAGEMENT

It produces high
quality sound using its
own internal speaker.

And it offers a range
of facilities many larger
more expensive machines
just cannot match.

For example the Electron’s
If colour graphics have the highest
resolution of any home computer.

This is because the chip that
controls the graphics, specially
designed by Acorn, is one of the
most advanced of its kind. As a result,
the Electron delivers twice as many characters across
the screen as its closest competitor.

Built to last and to grow.

The Electron has been designed and built to be
a permanent part of the family, year in year out.

Particular care has been paid to the keyboard.
It is electric typewriter style;robustly constructed
with a good, solid ‘feel” It has a space bar, and sin gle
entry keys for key commancfsT 32 ™®®® 8 ®®
In other words it’s comfortable and
easy to use, avoiding the need for the

manual gymnastics sometimes associated with
calculator style keyboards.

And it will grow with you via expansion
modules, that Acorn are developing, to take peri¬
pheral additions such as printers and disc drives.
So as your knowledge, interest and ambitions
develop, the Electron can develop with you.

Additionally, to give you all the support
you’ll need to generate your own applications
software, we’ve established a phone-in service
attended by specialists to give advice, encourage¬
ment and practical help.

A gentle teacher.

The Electron plugs straight into virtually
any TV set and cassette player so you will be

ready to go as soon as you get it home.

It comes not only with a comprehensive user
guide, which describes the machine and its functions,
hut also with a book that takes you step by step
through the basic principles
f programming.

EXPERTS LIKE WHAT MICRO?
AMD ME RATE THE ELECTRON
HIGHER THAW ANN OF THE
-1 COMPETITION!.

Money Management” through “Starship Command”
to “Creative Graphics” (which, incidentally, includes
some spectacular three-dimensional rotating shapes).
Naturally, with its strong educational links,

educational software will be extremely

A free taste
of its versatility .

You will also receive
an “Introductory” cassette which
will put the Electron through
its paces showing you a
little of what it can do
with its 64k of memory
(32k ROM, 32k RAM).
The cassette will
give you a taste of
se exceptional
ur graphics we men-
ned earlier; of its ability
to play and notate music, and
you how it might help in
accounting. It will challenge you
to a few games and will, if you ask it, do your whole
family’s biorhythms in a matter of seconds.

You will in short, through the 15 separate
programs it contains, get a glimpse of the Electron’s
potential. But only a glimpse, for that potential is as
limitless as your own interest and imagination.

A widening ran g e of software.

To help you realise some of that potential,
Electron software already ranges from “Personal

important for the Electron and even now 0 and
A Level revision papers are being processed for
Electron users.

How to get your Electron.

The Electron is available from selected
W H Smith and local Acorn stockists. However, if you
would like to order one with your credit card, or if
you would like the address of your nearest supplier,
just phone 01-200 0200.

mm | MW* | mj | m

i * Wm i HHr

mm

f

€?l<£3nc:t iTOJtT ■

.. 1

§ 9 ,

^ pw ® pi, __ P

rrji

Hardware.

2MHz 6502.

32K ROM 32K RAM (64K total).

High resolution graphics 640 x 256 max.

Seven display modes.

8 colours and 8 flashing colours.

1200 baud CUTS tape interface with motor control.
Expansion bus for add-on interface modules.

Internal loudspeaker.

PAL UHF output to colour or black and white domestic TV.
RGB output for colour monitor.

56 key full travel QWERTY keyboard with spacebar.

Technical Specifications

Software.

BBC BASIC.

Extensions include interger, floating point and string variables, multi dimen¬
sional arrays: IF... THEN... ELSE, REPEAT... UNTIL, procedures with
local variables.

Operating system allows plot, draw and fill commands.

Event timing.

Built-in assembler.

6502 assembly language can be mixed with BASIC.

COMPLETE PACKAGE - ALL THIS FOR £499!

* 80K’RAM (Exp to 144K)

Full Stroke Keyboard
256K Data Storage Unit
Daisywheel Printer
Built-in Word Processing
Buck Rogers Arcade Game
Colecovision Compatible

Inc VAT

MEMORY CONSOLE & DATA DRIVE

DAISYWHEEL PRINTER

COLECOVISION GAMES CONSOLE

75 KEY FULL STROKE KEYBOARD

COMPREHENSIVE INSTRUCTIONS

QUITE SIMPLY-VALUE FOR MONEY!

If you're looking for real value in a computer system, one which can handle anything from serious Word Processing to
enhanced Colecovision style video games such as Buck Rogers, look no further. The Coleco Adam is here with a package
which will make you wonder if you’re dreaming when we tell you about it. A price breakthrough in computer systems, Adam is
comprised of an 80K RAM memory console* with a built-in 256K digital data drive; a professional quality, stepped and
sculptured 75 key full-stroke keyboard; a letter quality daisywheel printer and a full word processing program built into the
Console. Two additional pieces of software, Smart BASIC and also ‘Buck Rogers - Planet of Zoom' (the ultimate in advanced
video games), are included as well as a blank digital data pack. Adam can be used with any domestic colour Television set.

MEMORY CONSOLE/DATA DRIVE: *The heart of the Adam system is the 40K ROM and 64K RAM memory
console which combines with the 32K ROM and 16K RAM in Colecovision to give you a total of 72K ROM (including 24K
cartridge ROM) and 80K RAM (expandable to 144K). Built into the memory console is a digital data drive which accepts
Adam’s digital data packs, a fast and reliable mass storage medium that is capable of storing 256K of information, that’s
about 250 pages of double spaced text! The console is also designed to accomodate a second optional digital data drive.

FULL STROKE KEYBOARD: The Adam keyboard has been designed as a professional quality keyboard that
combines ease of use with an impressive array of features. It is stepped and sculptured for maximum efficiency and has 75
full stroke keys which include 6 colour coded Smart Keys which are redefined for each new application; 10 command keys
which are dedicated to the word processing function, and 5 cursor control keys for easy positioning of the cursor at any
point on the screen. You can attach a Colecovision controller to the keyboard to function as a numeric keypad for easy
data entry. It can also be held like a calculator, a feature which makes working with numbers particularly easy. The joystick
part of the hand controller can be used in the same way as the cursor control keys, to move the cursor around the screen.

LETTER QUALITY PRINTER: The Smart Writer letter quality daisywheel printer is a bi-directional 80 column
printer which prints at a rate of 120 words per minute. It uses standard interchangeable daisywheels, so a variety of
typestyles are available. The printer has a 9.5 inch wide carriage for either single sheets or continuous fan fold paper and
uses standard carbon ribbons. It is comparable to many printers which cost as much as the total Adam package. The
printer can be used either with the Adam’s Smart Writer word processing program or as a stand alone electronic typewriter.

BUILT-IN WORD PROCESSOR: Adam comes with Smart Writer word processing built-in. This program is so
easy to use that you only have to turn the power on and the word processor is on line and ready to go. Detailed instruction
books are not necessary as the Computer guides you step by step, working from a series of Menu commands. It enables
you to type in text, then completely edit or revise it with the touch of a few keys. Changes are readily made and a series of
queries from the computer confirm your intentions, so that you can continuously double check your work as you type.

COMPATIBILITY WITH COLECOVISION: By using high speed interactive microprocessors in each of the
modules, the Coleco Adam is designed to take additional advantage of both the 32K ROM and 16K RAM memory capability
in the Colecovision. If you do not already own a Colecovision Console (£99 inc VAT), then you will need to purchase this
when you initially purchase your Adam Computer package (£499 inc VAT), making a total purchase price of (£598 inc VAT).

WHAT IS COLECOVISION: Colecovision is one of the worlds most powerful video game systems, capable of
displaying arcade quality colour graphics of incredible quality on a standard Colour TV set. The console (see picture
bottom left) accepts 24K ROM cartridges such as Turbo and Zaxxon and is supplied with the popular Donkey Kong
cartridge and a pair of joystick controllers. Colecovision has a range of licenced arcade hits available such as: Gorf,
Carnival, Cosmic Avenger, Mouse Trap, Ladybug, Venture, Smurf, Pepper II, Space Panic, Looping, Space Fury, Mr Do,
Time Pilot, Wizard of Wor and many others. So there you have it, Adam plus Colecovision the unbeatable combination.
Send the coupon below for your FREE copy of our 12 page Colour brochure giving details on the complete Adam system.

SILICA SHOP LTD., 1-4 The Mews, Hatherley Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA144DX Tel: 01-309 1111 or 01-301 1111

ORDER NOW- OR SEND FOR A FREE COLOUR BROCHURE

r To: SILICA SHOP LTD, Dept PCT 0784,1-4 The Mews, Hatherley Road,
Sidcup, Kent, DAM 4DX Telephone: 01-309 1111 or 01-301 1111

LITERATURE REQUEST:

□ Please send me your FREE 12 page colour brochure on Colecovision/Adam

□ I own a . Videogame □ I own a . Computer

Mr/Mrs/Ms: . Initials: . Surname: .

Address: .

Postcode:

ORDER REQUEST:

Please send me: □ Adam (add-on package only) . £499 inc VAT

□ Adam & Colecovision (£499+£99) £598 inc VAT

□ I enclose Cheque/P.0. payable to Silica Shop Limited

□ CREDIT CARD - Please debit my Access/Barclaycard/Visa/Am Ex/Diners Club
Card Number:

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

i recuure |”i”|“|“|”| , Wi“|“|“|“|“i“i'V’i"i”i”i"i“rT'i"i“i“r‘i

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

Personal

Computing

Today

The results of our readers' survey are

somewhat surprising. Read on to find out

the state of home computing today.

We had a very good
response from readers to
our questionnaire publish¬
ed in the February issue.
Thank you to everyone
who took part. Your
answers and those from
computer user groups
around the country have
now been analysed
statistically by lain
Peacock of Heriot Watt
University and have pro¬
vided the basis of this
article.

Battling for
position

It probably comes as
no surprise that the
Sinclair Spectrum came
out tops in terms of the
number owned by our
readers, with 2 1 % of you
having this particular
make of micro.

The Commodore
machines also did very
well. The VIC 20 and
CBM 64 were the next
most frequently owned

micros. These machines
are to be found in over
30% of readers' homes, a
figure Commodore can be
rightly proud of in such a
competitive market as
home computing.

Somewhat surprising
perhaps is the fact that
almost 12% of you own
the Texas TI99/4A. It
makes one wonder about
the causes for this
machine's sad demise.
This micro is presently
more popular than
Acorn's BBC Micro and
the Oric which appear to
have cornered about 1 5%
of the market in total. Of
course, these figures will
be on the change as the
Texas machine will not
appeal to new owners in
the light of future lack of
support.

Atari machines are
also very popular among
readers. Percentage
ownership of their three
most popular home
machines — the 400,

800 and the new 600XL
is over 5%. Dragon is the
only remaining micro to be
owned by you in any large
number, with more than
2% of readers having
them. New computers
which featured in the
ownership ratings were
the Memotech MTX 512
and the Electron, although
as yet these are not own¬
ed by you in any large
numbers.

It is interesting to look
at the computers which
started many of you along
the road to computing.
Top of the list was the
Sinclair ZX8 1 , one of the
earliest computers to be
brought within the grasp
of home users. The VIC20
is another micro which
was popular as a first
machine among those of
you who have now moved
on to more advanced
computing. Of the readers
who replied over 36%
had owned at least one
previous computer and

i“!“5 Personal Computing Today

i_i_i_i_i i i i i i i i i i i

rrrrrrrrrrrrrri

l - l - l - l - l - l - l - l - l - l - l - l - l - l - l - l - l - , - l - l - , - l -L l i * * * * * i * i *

more than 6% had had
more than two.

Electronic timing

chases took place in
November and December
and reflects the buying
draw of Christmas.

Ownership of com¬
puters in the home has
been increasing steadily
over the past six years or
so but the biggest in¬
crease in home ownership
took place last year. The
computer price war and
the launches of new,
lower priced micros such
as the Electron, CBM64
and Memotech in the
price range £200-300
has enabled more people
to afford them for recrea¬
tional use. Of course, be¬
ing a beginner's mag¬
azine, a high proportion of
our respondents would be
expected to have bought
their machine fairly
recently, but this trend ap¬
pears to be valid overall.
The majority of the pur¬

Peripheral power

We thought it would
be interesting to in¬
vestigate what peri¬
pherals, if any, are owned
by home computer en¬
thusiasts. Top of the list
came the cassette
recorder/player, followed
a long way behind by
RAM pack extensions.
With so many of you own¬
ing machines with larger
memories such as the
CBM64 and 48K Spec¬
trum extension RAM
packs are not likely to be
popular or necessary add¬
ons. Quite a few of you
have the luxury of
dedicated monitors
thereby avoiding the need

to subject the whole fami¬
ly to 'zap the aliens' on
the TV set. Printers are
also quite popular now
and the rapidly falling
prices and technological
advances are likely to br¬
ing them into the range
and desire of even more of
you this year. Modems are
also owned by a signifi¬
cant number of you and as
these appear to be the up-
and-coming add-on we
expect this figure to in¬
crease further over the
next year or so.

Software

selection

Some of the resp¬
ondents owned no soft¬
ware at all! A very surpris¬
ing find — you must find
the listings in PCT all you
require! However, the
vast majority of
respondents owned bet¬
ween one and five pro¬
grams brought commer¬
cially with a significant
number having more than
twenty in their libraries.
Arcade games proved the
most popular but educa¬
tional and business/home
economics programs
were not too far behind.
This reflects the increas¬
ing use to which com¬
puters are being put in the
home and their more
serious applications.

All that remains on the
software front is the
amount of time you spend
programming and using
your computers. Very few
respondents do not do
any programming at all
and over a quarter of you
spend between 30 and
50% of computing time
actually writing programs.

Retail results and
future plans

It appears that you
prefer to buy computers
from specialist computers
shops where you can ob¬

tain good advice and back
up service. The High
Street chain stores are
also a popular place but
come a long way behind
the more informed cen¬
tres.

Of those of you con¬
sidering changing your
computer, the most
popular choices would
seem to be the BBC,
CBM64, Memotech and
Elan — the latter of which
is surprising in view of the
fact that this micro will
not be available until
September at the earliest.
These choice will
understandably be subject
to fluctuation as new
micros are launched.

Literature

You are a greedy lot
when it comes to reading
about your subject. There
is a proliferation of books
and magazines available
to you and it seems that
you make good use of the
choice. Of course, PCT
came top of the list of
magazine, only to be ex¬
pected since the question¬
naire was contained in it.
Almost 20% of you read
five or more magazines
per week!

Ownership profile

Disappointingly
93.5% of respondents
were male and two age
groups were prominent.
These were the 13-19
and 3 1-40 year old
brackets and almost 20%
of respondents belonged
to computer user groups.

It was interesting to
find out more about our
readers and your com¬
puting habits and the
results will help us pro¬
duce a magazine which is
superbly tailored to your
needs. Thanks for taking
part in our survey and
happy computing!

STACK 100 LIGHTPEN ■ £28.75 gives your computer eyes!

SLR

(STACK LIGHT RIFLE)

Available for:
CBM64, VIC20,
BBC-B, Atari

3

JUST TWO OF THE EXCITING
PRODUCTS IN THE STACK 100 RANGE

[07TK - CBM 64 Accessories

Cartridges :-

HELP - over 20 extra commands, disassembler and
I'*J| ■ * 1Bl machine code monitor, DOS £28.75

• Available for the CBM 64, VIC-20 and 48K f nSaemblerMOM “ ^ 3 COmprehensive

Mill AR P ROwTads and saves a 32K program faster than
complete with three exciting games and a 1541 disk drive (use with 1530 C2N cassettp dprkt

connects to your computer with 12 feet of 1111 flHHH £33 35 u cassette deck)

/eao e ii e The SLR ^ y ° U ^ 3 diff6rent HUlAjH ARROW PLUS - as ARROW but with a

9 ' mam :¥*1 l [H comprehensive 6502 assembler £44.85

POQ QC 4-SLOT MOTHERBOARD - (switched) £33.35

and a full range of printer interfaces.

Please send me a Free brochure, price list and
the address of my nearest stockist.

Name.

Address .

E. & O.E.

All prices are inclusive of VAT and delivery.

STACK 1OO

CUSTOMER INFORMATION CENTRE

290-298 Derby Road, Bootle, Liverpool L208LN
Trade Enquiries: 051-933 5511 ask for “Trade Sales'

Electronequip

(Authorised BBC Dealer, and service centre)

SPECIAL OFFERS

PHONE FOR DETAILS

Rat

ANB01

ANB02

ANB03

ANB04

Electronequip is an authorised Acorn service centre and has
been an Acorn dealer since the introduction of the Atom.

Our demonstration facilities include 20 station Econet and
Torchnet systems.

BBC Mic Ex VAT Inc VAT

BBC Model B Micro Computer 348.26 399.00

BBC Model B with Econet Interface 389.14 446.00

BBC Model B with Disc Interface 426.59 489.00

BBC Model B with Disc & Econet Interface 467.45 536.00

SPECIAL OFFERS

3" Micro Disc £129.95

(inc. VAT)

Disc Interface & Drive
£198.95 (inc. VAT)

Micro Disc Drive for the BBC Micro
The Micro disc drive offers a method of low cost quick access to
programs. The drive is essentially a small version of a 5J" disc
drive and offers similar features to the larger drive.

The data is stored on a 3" disc, this is enclosed in a protective
hard plastic cassette which features a write protect switch.

The micro drive requires the standard Acorn disc interface, but a
new disc filing system rom. Acorn DFS may be exchanged for the
micro DFS for £12.00. The new micro disc filing system allows 60
files per disc surface and it can read and write to Acorn DFS discs.
Thus if a 5i inch and a micro floppy were connected on the same
cable files could be transfered between them.

Capacity: 80.64 K bytes Transfer Rate: 125kbit/s

TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME
Access & Barclaycard Accepted
Large Stocks - 24 Hour Despatch
Carriage 50p

EPSON

RX-80FTC263 .12 +VAT
FX-80 £365.09+ VAT

Printer price includes cable for BBC and screen
dump rom is available for £7.50

MNCE370A

MNKVIS2

MNKVIS3

MNM1431

MNM1441

MNM1451

MNN1534

MNN3534

MNN4430

MNN4432

MNN4437

Cable CE 370A Colour RGB Monitor
Kaga 12" RGB Monitor Vision II (Medium)

Kaga 12" RGB Monitor Vision III (Hi)

Microvitec 1431 14" Colour Monitor (BBC)

Microvitec 1441 High Res 14" BBC Monitor
Microvitec 1451 Medium Res 14" BBC Monitor
Nordmende 14" TV/Monitor
Nordmende 14" TV/Monitor with remote control
Nordmende 20" Prestige TV/Monitor remote
Nordmende 22" Prestige TV/Monitor remote
Nordmende 27" Prestige TV/Monitor remote

SIDEWISE FITTED

“SIDEWAYS” rom board for BBC Micro.
No soldering required £38.00 + VAT

1 Wacom i

| COMPUTER^

Electronequip

L BBC

36-38 West Sti

reet, Fareham, Hants

(0329)230670

Personal Computing Today July 1984

15

^rpABT l C L

Personal

win

“IF YOU CAN T SEE IT - IT’S GONE!

SUBSCRIBE NOW AND AVOID
ANY DISAPPOINTMENT BY RECEIVING
YOUR PERSONAL COPY THROUGH THE
POST EACH MONTH DIRECT TO
YOUR DOOR

SUBSCRIPTION ORDER
FORM

Cut out and SEND TO:

PERSONAL COMPUTING TODAY,

INFONET LTD., TIMES HSE,

179 THE MARLOWES,

HEMEL HEMPSTEAD,

HERTS, HP1 IBB

Please commence my personal subscription
PERSONAL COMPUTING TODAY with the.issue

SUBSCRIPTION

RATES

(tick as
appropriate)

£14 00 for 12 issues
UK

£15-90 for 12 issues
Overseas Surface
£3T80 for 12 issues
Overseas Air Mail

/ am enclosing my (delete as necessary)
Cheque/Postal Order/lnternational Money

Order for £ .

(made payable to ASP Ltd)

OR

Debit my Access/Barclaycard*

(* delete as necessary)

Please use BLOCK CAPITALS and include post codes.

Name (Mr/Mrs/Miss) .

(delete accordingly)

Address .

Signature . Date

GRAFPAD

...for as many uses
as YOU
can imagine!

BBC MODEL 2 • SPECTRUM
COMMODORE 64

With Grafpad you can now add a new dimension to your
computer enjoyment, but most important, it helps you
create yourown application programmes by the simple use
of the Grafpad!

The Grafpad comes complete with a cassette comprising
two programmes.

THE FIRST PROGRAMME

HOW TO ORDER:

BY TELEPHONE:

If you are an American Express,
Barclaycard, Diners Club or Access
Card Holder simply telephone us giving
your Card No., Name, Address and
item(s) required and your orders will be
dispatched within 48 hours!

BY POST:

Simply fill in the coupon, enclosing
your cheque/RO. made payable to:
BRITISH MICRO, or use the special
section for Credit Card Holders, and
post to the address below.

Please allow 14 days for delivery.

Post to: BRITISH MICRO, UNIT Q2, PENFOLD WORKS
IMPERIAL WAY, WATFORD, HERTS. WD2 4YY

Please send me Grafpad for:

□ BBC MODEL2 □ SINCLAIR SPECTRUM

(Please tick)

□ COMMODORE 64

(Size: 25mm height x 55mm width x 260mm depth)
Weight: 1.2 kg (Gross)

displays the co-ordinates of your screen area. The
co-ordinates are based on the screen with a grid size of
1023 x 1279 pixel, also in the Grafpad giving you a grid

size of 320 x 256 pixels!

THE SECOND PROGRAMME

provides you with the utilities for circles,
squares, triangles, free-hand, erasing
line-drawing etc, and of course, full
“Fill-in” facility in 16 different colours by
the simple use of the pen!
Draw from a simple apple to a computer
circuit - store in cassette or disk,
perhaps transfer direct to a
printer - in black and white
or full glorious colour!
Purchase unique C.A.D. (Computer Aided
Designs) programme and add further enjoyment
and professionalism to your computer designs!
The Grafpad comes complete with Operational Manual,
Programmes, The Grafpad and Pen and it simply plugs

in your computer.

1

(The above designs were drawn by a 12-year-old at our
showrooms!)

# DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOMED

• SPECIAL DISCOUNTS FOR EDUCATIONAL
AUTHORITIES

Qty.

Item

Ex. VAT

Inc. VAT

Total

Grafpad Complete

£125.00

£143.75

C.A.D. Programme

£18.00

£20.70

Postage, Packing & Insurance

£5.00

1 enclose my cheque/PO. for£.

TOTAL

£

I prefer to pay with my American Express, Barclaycard, Diners, Access Card
(Please cross out whichever is not applicable)

BRITISH MICRO

A HEGOTRON GROUP COMPANY

UnitQ2, Penfold Works,

Imperial Way, Watford, HERTS WD2 4YY
TEL: (0923) 48222. TELEX: 946024

CARD NO. _
SIGNATURE

NAME_

ADDRESS_

L

Address above must be the same as card holder.

J

IJJJJJJJJJJJJ I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

I I I I I I I I I |

Characters
by Design

This is perhaps the definitive^ character_

definer. We have included copious notes to
help you learn more about your Beeb whilst
getting it to do some interesting things.

By B. Spencer.

There have been several
recent publications of
character definition utility
programs. Most, if not all
of these allow the user to
create a single character
and give the associated
line code. The more
sophisticated ones store
the character in the
system workspace for
definable characters, but
none have allowed the
wide variety of options of¬
fered by this program.

The title page

This screen is only
viewed from RUN and is
not recalled in the pro¬
gram, as written.
'VDU23' is displayed in
the format that will be us¬
ed in the program. This
consists of an 8 x 8 grid of
red stars per character,
upon which is superim¬
posed in yellow, stars
representing the 'on' pix¬
els in the character. The
VDU23 heading is taken
from a data set held in the
listing and is not therefore

dependant upon any
definable characters being
set up.

The rest of the title
screen gives a general
reminder of the VDU23
syntax for character
definition, followed by a
brief summary of the main
facilities offered by the
program. All modes and
functions are selected by
single key presses, except
where a character number

has to be entered. This
must be typed in and
followed by RETURN.

TAB = Continue F =
finish with program

The menu

A grid of two rows of
four squares is drawn,
and each is filled with an
8x8 set of red stars. This
is the drawing board. The
drawing board is present

all the time and only the
text area below the board
changes with each mode
selected. On returning to
the menu, all the artistic
creations are retained on
the drawing board. In this
way, it is possible to build
up multi-character pic¬
tures for use in games,
and it doesn't matter how
the character was put on
the screen.

Key presses offered are:

1 = Create a new

character code

2 = Recall an existing

character

3 = Analyse a character

code

4 = Display the

currently held

character set

5 = Clear the drawing

board/store

F = Finish with program

Create a new
character

Selected by keying 1
on the menu, the lower
text area of the screen is
cleared and the user is
asked for the square
number in which the new
character is to be created.
Because this is selectable
at every new creation, the
facility automatically exits
to build pictures from new
characters, entered into
any square to suit.

Key a single number
from 1 to 8 and the user is
asked for the character
number which is to be
created. This must be
typed in as 224 to 255
followed by RETURN. Any
numbers outside of the
acceptable range on both
entries are rejected, and
the user is informed of the
first available character
that is undefined. A rect¬
angle is drawn below the
input line in which the line
code will appear as the
character is built. The

building options by key
presses are shown and
the cursor is positioned at
the top, left-hand pixel of
the selected character
square.

The cursor control
keys will move the cursor
about the selected
square, but it will not go
outside that square, until
the process is completed
and the character stored.
Pressing TAB once will
change the red star to
yellow and the next press
will revert back to red.
Yellow stars indicate 'on'
pixels. As soon as TAB is
pressed for the first time,
the line code for the
character appears in the
lower rectangle and the
actual size character is
printed in front of this
code. This builds exactly
as the large square on the
drawing board, because
every change made up¬
dates the 8 bytes of the
character stored in page
EtCOO.

Pressing COPY will
cease the process and
store the last set of data,
following which the op¬
tion to repeat the process
or return to the menu is
given. The drawing
square, character number,
line code and full size
character all remain on
screen at this point in
order that note may be
made of the code,
although this can be
recalled later if wanted.
During the create process,
the option to press
DELETE exists at all
times. This will complete¬
ly clear the selected
square back to red and
cancel the stored
character, as well as set
the line code to eight
zeros.

Key presses as encounter¬
ed:

TAB = Change value
of bit

COPY = Store new
character
code

DELETED = Clear selected
square
RETURN = Create
another
character

TAB = Return to the
menu

Recall an existing
character

Selected by pressing

2 on the menu, the lower
text area of the screen is
cleared, and the user is
asked to nominate the
square and the character
number to be recalled.
The input process is the
same as for creation of a
new character.

As with other displays
the full size character and
its line code are displayed
as well as setting the ap¬
propriate yellow stars in
the nominated square of
the drawing board.

The only options
available are to repeat for
another character (or the
same one) to another
square (or the same one)
or to return to the menu.

Key presses offered are:
RETURN = Recall another
character

TAB = Return to the
menu

Analyse a
character code

Selected by pressing

3 on the menu, the lower
text area of the screen is
cleared, and the user is
asked for the square into
which the analysed line
code is to be placed. On
selection of the square
number, instructions are
given for entering the line
code to be analysed. The
input requires all the line
code to be typed in before
pressing RETURN. The

code is then stored in any
array for further process¬
ing. Upon RETURN the
code is analysed and the
selected square is
displayed showing the
correct pixels 'on' which
are represented by the
code.

This can now be
stored, or ignored. If it is
to be stored, press COPY
and give the line code a
character number where
asked. Following RETURN
the new shape of the
character is displayed
preceeding the line code
and this confirms the
storage in page 8000. As
before the character on
the drawing board re¬
mains where it was plac¬
ed. If the line code is in¬
correctly typed with any
digit larger than 255 then
that line of stars appears
white and the digit in error
appears white, with an er¬
ror message. An attempt
to store a code such as
this will not be allowed
and the user is told so.

Display of the
character set

Selected by keying 4
on the menu, the lower
text area of the screen is
cleared and the current
status of the memory
page 8-COO is displayed in
4 rows of 8 characters,
the beginning and end
characters of each row
being numbered. If the
display is selected from
the first menu after RUN,
then the only character to
contain any information
will be 224. Because this
is the first character held in
page 8-COO and stored as
the first 8 bytes, the page
marker i.e. 255, is pre¬
sent as the first byte, thus
giving rise to a character
which shows a bar in its
top most row of pixels.
This situation is remedied

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

0Zr------C0Z0j~rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr i

I | III | I | | |“|”|“|"|“|“|“|”|“|“|”|“|”|“|“|“|”|“|

rrrrrrrrrrr«"rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

statements fits comfortably into a BBC-B machine
If the program is to run on OS 0.1 then the
cursor control codes will need adjusting and
* FX200 is not available to disable the ESCAPE
key.

Text variables read in from DATA
store.

Array to hold 8 bit values of
generated line code
Array to hold 8 bit values of input
line codes

Data array holding colour of pixel as
last updated
Column loop counter.

Grid square selector.

Key press variable (all key presses
except where G% is used.)

Holds the contents of a memory
location while under examination.
General purpose primary loop
counter

Returns the bit value of an input
error encountered in PROCanalyse,
ready for printing.

Secondary loop counting variable
where conflict occurs with N%

Row loop counter.

Tests for an error in the input line
code when decoding in
PROCanalyse. Set to 0 normally,
and set to 1 if error detected.

Input CHR$ No.

Whole square, horizontal location
co-ordinate.

Whole square, vertical location
co-ordinate.

Controls printing of line code. If = 0,
line code is not printed. IF = 1, line
code is printed in the text area of the
screen.

The main program is listed from line 1 0 to line
230, with the main execution loop held between
1 10 and 1 90. The error trap used in developing
the program has been left in place.

Line 70 dimensions the arrays used and gets
the key press variable K% and loop control variable
N% known to the computer. Mode 1 is selected
and the cursor is turned off in line 80. The cursor
control keys are also disabled such that they now
return ASCII codes when pressed ( *FX4,1). Line
90 disables the ESCAPE key ( *FX200,1).

Following an error detection or command to
finish the program, the screen is cleared and all
special function^ are restored to normal use giving
a clear screen in Mode 1.

The PROCedure definitions have been liberally
documented with REM statements describing the
function of each procedure. Obviously it is not
necessary to type in all the REM statements, but it
will make reading the program easier at a later
date, especially as variable names have been

deliberately kept to the use of the resident integer
variables where possible to conserve the space. In
addition there are some useful routines included
which could be extracted for use in other
programs.

The memory allocations for this program are as
follows:

PAGE - 8-OEOO
TOP = 8-28CE

3584

10446

listing)

12288

11229

(Normal)

(Limit of program
(Mode 1)

(Top of variables store)

HIMEM = &3000
&2BDD

Listing length
Screen allocation
Variables store
Free space

As can be seen, the program with all its REM
statements fits comfortably into a BBC-B machine
If the program is to run on OS 0.1 then the
cursor control codes will need adjusting and
* FX200 is not available to disable the ESCAPE
key.

the first time PROCsearch
is called by the program.
The only action possible
from this screen is to
return to the menu.

TAB = Return to the
menu.

Housekeeping

routine

Selected by keying 5
on the menu, the lower
text area of the screen is
cleared and the user is
presented with three
"clearing up" routines. A
nominated square on the
drawing board can be
cleared of yellow stars, or
the entire drawing board
can be set red. Either of

these actions will only af¬
fect the drawing board
and will not alter the
character store. A third
option to clear the entire
character store is also of¬
fered. If this is selected,
then a message to confirm
the action is printed, and a
'Y' reply will go ahead and
delete the entire contents
of page &COO, otherwise
it is saved. Each routine,
when complete, returns
the menu.

Key presses offered are:

1 = Clear a nominated

square

2 = Clear all the squares

3 = Clear the defined

character store

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

rrrrrrrrrci

V

B I

I

■

hints on conversion

I I I I t I I I I I I I I I I I

1. For disc based BBC machines

The program as written will just fit into the Model
B machine, with approximately 1000 bytes free,
after variables have been stored. The Acorn DFS
requires PAGE to set at 8-1 900 and other types
require PAGE to be at &1 500. None of these, if
fitted, will leave enough space to run the program.
The Author's own disc system is one of the latter
and it was found necessary to split the program
into two parts, i.e. a loader program that CHAINS
the main program.

If the instructions below are followed, the re¬
allocation of memory space will certainly do for the
DFS with PAGE at 8-1 500 and may just,
accommodate the Acorn DFS. If it is just too
marginal in practice, then one can always resort to
loading the program from disc and moving it down
in memory prior to running.

Construct your loader program using the
following lines from the main program:

10-40, 60-100 (changing line 100 to CHAIN the
second program)

210-230, 400-650, 2050. Line 60 could usefully
be altered to allow for error 1 7 (escape pressed) to
be trapped into CHAINing the disc menu, with
other errors causing a tidy exit via line 210. The
main program can then have all unnecessary lines
removed including REM statements, as this saves a
lot of space, and then be saved under a new title,
which is the title to be CHAINED by the loader
program. It is advisable to alter 7&-DFF in line
1 740 to 7&-8F to avoid any possibility of
conflicting with DFS workspace occupying page
&-ODOO. When run, the effect will be to display
the title page as before.

Pressing TAB-6- will cause the main program to
load and run, or pressing ESC-o- will cause the
disc menu to load and run.

For other micros

Because of the similarities between the BBC
and the Electron, it is conceivable that with very
little modification, the program can be made to run
on the Electron.

When considering micros "outside of the
family" there are many things to take into
account. It is best therefore to document the
peculiarities of the BBC Micro in this context rather
than state what should be done, to use this type
of program on any other micro.

Having established that your machine will
support user-definable characters, you will need to
know how they are stored in the machine and how
they may be altered. In the BBC Micro, the
memory map of the RAM area is divided up into
256 byte sections called pages. User defined
characters are stored as contiguous sections of 8
bytes in the page whose start address is 8-0C00.
Each character (numbered as CHR$ 224-255) has
its own unique place in the page and if only CHR$
240 for example were defined, then the 8 bytes
for CHR$ 240 will stand alone in splendid isolation
in the middle of page &-OCOO.

The BBC Micro command to set up CHR$ 240
is VDU23, 240,n,n,n,n,n,n,n,n, where 'n' is a
whole number in the range 0-255. The 8
consecutive 'n's become the line code that is
stored for future recall. Line 1 570 actally stores
the code every time you update it.

The BBC Micro procedure calls may all be

replaced by GOSUB routines pointing to the REM
line. The DEFPROC lines should be left out and the
ENDPROC lines replaced by RETURN.

In BBC terminology the % symbol following a
variable name indicates an integer variable (whole
number only). The three arrays need not be integer
variables if your machine will not support this, and
neither need any of the other numeric variables. In
the BBC Micro, the variables A% to Z% inclusive
are called resident integers, and they are stored in
the system workspace rather than in the program
variables store. This is a great advantage in so far
as it cuts down the variables space required.
Obviously it follows that your variables may be
called anything you like — but watch the space it
occupies!

In an earlier part of this article, details of how
the memory is used up is given as a guide. Mode 1
is a high resolution graphics mode supporting four
colours on screen at any one time. All four default
colours (black, red, yellow and white) are in use. It
is the mode best suited to the screen display
required because the amount of text possible is the
maximum in the 40 column modes, having 32
lines available for use. The colours also are
sufficiently different to be easily identified on
monochrome screens.

Each procedure is given a short explanation of
its purpose. In addition:

Line 50

Line 70
Line 80

Line 90

Line 570

Line 690

Line 710

Lines 1020,1740

*TV255, 1 set the text area
down one line on the TV frame
and controls the interlacing
(wavy line) effect.

* FX1 5,0 Flushes all internal
buffers.

*FX4,1 Enables the cursor
keys to return ASCII codes
when pressed as well as
continue to move the cursor.
These are tested for in lines
820-850 and is reset by
*FX4,0 line 220.

*FX200, 1 Disables the
ESCAPE key. This is considered
worthwhile because extensive
use is made of the TAB key.
This is reset by * FX200,0 in
lline 210.

@% -4 is a command to divide
the text into zones of 4
columns for automatic print
spacing.

The DRAW and MOVE com¬
mand cause the graphics boxes
to be drawn on the screen.
VDU31,X%,Y% positions the
cursor at TAB positions X%
(horizontal) and Y% (vertical)
without printing anything.

The "?" in front of a variable
or section of calculation is
equivalent to the peek or poke
command. For example
?&8F = 0 means POKE 0 into
location &8F (&-8F is a
hexcode, 8F = 1 43 decimal)
and IF ?&8F = 0 THEN....
means if PEEKing into location
8Erf finds 0 THEN....

I i

*i*i

* 1*1

*1*1

>

1 I I I I I I 1 I I I

rrrrrrrrrri

Characters t — t -

rr

program listing

I

10 REM -

20 REM CHARACTER DEFINITION PROGRAM
30 REM BBC(MODEL B) 32K OS1.2

40 REM -

50 #TV255.1

60 ON ERROR CLS:REPORT:PRINT" at line ERL:GOTO 210
70 DIM A7.(8) ,BX(8) ,DX<8,8) :KX*0:NX=0:*FX15,0
BO M0DE1: PROCoff : #FX4, 1
90 PROCtitle:*FX200,1
100 IF K7.=70 THEN 200 ELSE CLS: PROCboard
110 REPEAT

120 PROCc lrscrn: C0L0UR3: RESTORE 2060:FOR NX=19 TO 27 STEP 2: READ A*:PRINT
TAB<6,NX)A*:NEXT

130 C0L0LJR2: F’R I NTT AB (9,29) " ’ F ’ =f i n i sh with program" : REPEAT: K7.=GET: UNTIL K
y.=70 OR KX >48 AND KX<54
140 IF KX=49 PROCcreate
150 IF KX=50 PROCrecal1
160 IF KX=51 PROCanalyse
170 IF KX-52 PROCdisplay
180 IF KX=53 PROCcI ear
190 UNTIL KX*70
200 CLS

210 C0L0UR3:#FX200,O
220 PROCon:*FX4,O
230 END
240

250 DEFPRGCoff

260 REM Turns cursor off

270 VDU23,1, O; O; O; 0;

280 ENDPROC

1070 ENDPROC
1080

1090 DEFPROCanalyse

1100 REM Analyses input line code into corresponding character shape
1110 PROCclrscrn

1120 REPEAT:ZX=0:RESTORE 2090:READ A*,B*,C*,D*

1130 PRINTTAB(4,22)SPC(34)TAB(6,24)SPC(75)TAB(5,27)SPC(110):PROCinput
1140 PRINTTAB(6,24)A*TAB(6)B*

1150 PROCon:INPUTTAB(4,22)" "BX(1>,BX(2),BX(3) ,BX<4),BX(5>,BX(6),BX(7), BX <
8) : PROCoff : FOR NX=1 TO 8: AX (NX) =BX (NX) : NEXT:ZX=1
1160 PROCdecode

1170 PRINTTAB(O,24)SPC(80):C0L0UR3:PRINTTAB(5,25)C*:PROCreturn:IF KX=9 OR
KX* 13 THEN 1220

1180 IF KX=135 AND TX=1 C0L0UR3:PRINTTAB<5,24)D*:GOTO 1200

1190 IF KX*135 AND TX=0 C0L0UR3:PROCsearch:REPEAT:PRINTTAB(36,20)SPC(3):IN
PUTT AB (24,20) " CHR* number="W.: UNTIL VX=0 OR VX>223 AND VX<256:IF VX=0 THEN
1200 ELSE FOR NX=1 TO 8:AX(NX)=BX(NX):NEXT:PROCstore
1200 PRINTTAB(0,25)SPC(40)

1210 REPEAT:KX=GET:UNTIL KX=9 OR KX=13:PRINTTAB(0,22)SPC(3)TAB(0,24)SPC<40

)

1220 IF TX=1 VDU31,XX,YX:PROCclrchr
1230 UNTIL KX=9
1240 ENDPROC
1250

1260 DEFPROCdisplay

1270 REM Prints current contents o-f page 8<C00
1280 PROCclrscrn

1290 COLOURS: R'/.=21: FOR NX=224 TO 255 STEP 8: PRINTTAB (5, RX) NX; "

1300 FOR QX=0 TO 6:PRINTCHR*(NX+QX);" ";:NEXT:PRINTCHR*(NX+QX);" ";NX+7:

:PRINT

290

300 DEFPROCon

310 REM Turns cursor on

320 VDU23, 1, l;0;0;0jj

330 ENDPROC

340

350 DEFPROCclrscrn

360 REM Clears screen lower text area

370 FOR NX=19 TO 29:PRINTTAB(0,NX)SPC(40) : NEXT

380 ENDPROC

390

400 DEFPROCdecode

410 REM Breaks down line code row by row and prints red or yellow stars
420 TX*0:FOR RX=1 TO 8

430 IF ZX=1 C0L0UR2:PRINTTAB(4*RX,22)AX(RX)

440 FOR CX*1 TO 8

450 IF AX(RX)+1—2'’'(8—CX)< =0 THEN 480
460 AX(RX)—AX(RX)-2 A < 8-CX)

470 C0L0UR2:VDU31,XX+CX,YX+RX,42:GOTO 490
480 COLOUR1:VDU31,XX+CX,YX+RX,42
490 NEXT

500 IF AX(RX)< >0 COLOURS:TX=1:PRINTTAB < XX+1,YX+RX)STRING*(8," # " ):IF ZX=1
PX=255+AX(RX):PRINTTAB(25,20)STRING*<8,"*");"=error":PRINTTAB(4*RX,22)PX
510 NEXT
520 ENDPROC
530

540 DEFPROCtitle

550 REM Prints title page and program in-formation

560 C0L0UR2:PRINTTAB(2,0)"CHARACTER DEFINITION UTILITY PROGRAM":GCOLO,2: M
0VE65,980:DRAW1220,980:XX=-1:YX=1
570 HX*4:REPEAT

580 FOR NX=1 TO 8:READ AX(NX):NEXT

590 ZX=0:PROCdecode:XX=XX+8

600 UNTIL XX>32:COLOURS: VDU31,0, 11

610 PRINT" IF chr$=a decimal number -from 224 to 255AND "n’=a decimal numbe
r from O to 255,":C0L0UR2:PRINTTAB<4,14)"THEN VDU23,chr*,n,n,n,n,n,n,n,n":C
0L0UR3:PRINTTAB(O,16)"is the correct syntax for the line code of the specif
ied user defined character."

620 PRINTTAB<4,19)"This program will allow the creationand updating of an
y nominated character,as well as permit the recall of stored characters.

In addition, the program will analyse a specified line code into a user d
efined shape."

630 PRINTTAB(4,26)"Final1y, a facility exists to build combinations of ch
aracters into picturesfor use in games etc.":C0LQUR2:PRINTTAB(1,30)"TAB=con
tinue"SPC(3)"’F’=finish with program"

640 REPEAT:KX=GET:UNTIL KX=9 OR KX=70
650 ENDPROC
660

670 DEFPROCboard

680 REM Prints drawing board and fills with red stars

690 FOR NX* 1007 TO 431 STEP-288: MOVE 111, NX: DRAW 1263, NX: NEXT: FOR NX=U1 TO
1263 STEP 288:MOVENX,1007:DRAWNX,431:MOVENX+1,431:DRAWNX+1,1007:NEXT
700 FOR YX=0 TO 9 STEP 9:COLOURS:IF YX*0 PRINTTAB(0,4)"1-4" ELSE PRINTTAB
(0,13)"5-8"

710 FOR XX=3 TO 30 STEP 9:VDU31,XX,YX:PROCclrchr:NEXT:NEXT

720 ENDPROC

730

740 DEFPROCcreate

750 REM Creates character in selected square and stores the code
760 PROCclrscrn
770 REPEAT:ZX=1

780 PRINTTAB(4,27)SPC(110)TAB(4,22)SPC(35):PROCinput:IF VX=0 THEN 920 ELS
E RESTORE 2070:FOR NX=25 TO 29 STEP 2:READ A*:PRINTTAB(6,NX)A*:NEXT
790 C0L0UR2:PROCc1rchr:VDU31,XX+CX,YX+RX:PROCon
800 REPEAT
810 KX=GET

820 IF KX=139 AND RX>1 RX=RX-1
830 IF KX*138 AND RX<8 RX=RX+1
B40 IF KX=137 AND CX<8 CX=CX+1
850 IF KX*136 AND CX>1 CX*CX-1

1310 RX*RX+2:NEXT:PROCr et urn

1320 ENDPROC

1330

1340 DEFPROCinput

1350 REM Takes input of CHR* No.and locates display in selected square
1360 PRINTTAB(1,20)SPC(38)

1370 MOVE110,270:DRAW110,335:DRAW1265, 335:DRAW1265,270:DRAW110,270:M0VE112
,270:DRAW112,335:MOVE1268,335:DRAW1268,270
1380 C0L0UR3:PRINTTAB<4,20)"Square number*":VDU31,18,20:REPEAT:GX=GET:UNTI
L GX>48 AND GX<57:VDU31,18,20,GX:IF ZX=0 THEN 1410
1390 IF KX=13 OR KX*49 OR KX=135 PROCsearch

1400 REPEAT:PRINTTAB(36,20)SPC(3):INPUTTAB(24,20)"CHR* number*"VX:UNTIL VX
=0 OR VX >223 AND VX<256
1410 IF GXC53 YX=0 ELSE YX=9:GX=GX-4
1420 XX=3+9*(GXM0D49)

1430 VDU31,XX,YX
1440 ENDPROC
1450

1460 DEFPROCencode

1470 REM Updates array with values to print red or yellow stars
1480 IF DX(CX,RX)=2 DX(CX,RX)*1 ELSE DX(CX,RX>*2
1490 AX < RX)=0

1500 FOR NX*1 TO 8:COLOURDX(NX,RX):IF DX(NX,RX)=2 AX < RX)=AX(RX)+2~ <8-NX)

1510 VDU31,XX+NX,YX+RX,42:NEXT

1520 PROCstore

1530 ENDPROC

1540

1550 DEFPROCstore

1560 REM Stores selected CHR* in page &C00 for future recall
1570 VDU23,VX,AX(1),AX(2),AX<3>,AX(4),AX(5) , AX(6),AX(7),AX(8)

1580 C0L0UR3:PRINTTAB <0,22)CHR*VX;" ="

1590 C0L0UR2:VDU31,4,22:FOR NX=1 TO 8:PRINTAX(NX);:NEXT
1600 ENDPROC
1610

1620 DEFPROCc1rchr

1630 REM Clears selected CHR* square and sets array elements to red
1640 COLOUR1

1650 FOR RX=1 TO 8:AX(RX>=0

1660 FOR CX=1 TO 8:DX(CX,RX)=1

1670 VDU31,XX+CX,YX+RX,42

1680 NEXT:NEXT

1690 CX*1:RX*1

1700 ENDPROC

1710

1720 DEFPROCsearch

1730 REM Searches page &C00 for first available undefined character

1740 IF ?8<DFF=0 ?&C00*0: 7&DFF* 1

1750 PRINTTAB(4,22)SPC(33):VX=223

1760 FOR NX*3072 TO 3320 STEP 8:VX*VX+1:MX*0

1770 FOR QX=NX TO NX+7:MX=MX+?QX:NEXT

1780 IF MX*0 THEN 1810

1790 IF VX=255 PRINTTAB<7,22)"A11 characters are now defined":NEXT NX:ENDP
ROC

1800 NEXT NX
1810 NX*3320:NEXT

1820 PR I NTTAB (8, 22) "CHR* "jVXji" is not yet defined"

1830 ENDPROC
1840

1850 DEFPROCc1ear

1860 REM Housekeeping PROC to clear screen squares or store
1870 PROCclrscrn:RESTORE 2100:READ A*,B*,C*,D*

1880 COLOURS:PRINTTAB(6,23)A*TAB(6,25)B*TAB(3,27)C*:REPEAT:KX=GET:UNTIL KX
>48 AND KXC52

1890 IF KX<>49 THEN 1930 ELSE C0L0UR2:PRINTTAB(7,29)"Enter square number
<1-8)":REPEAT:GX*GET:UNTIL GX>48 AND GX< 57
1900 IF GX<53 YX*0 ELSE YX=9:GX=GX-4
1910 XX*3+9#(GXM0D49)

1920 VDU31,XX,YX:PROCclrchr:ENDPROC

1930 IF KX<>50 THEN 1940 ELSE PROCboard:ENDPROC

1940 C0L0UR2:PRINTTAB < 6,29 > D*:REPEAT:KX=GET:UNTIL KX=78 OR KX=89

860 PROCoff

870 IF KX*135 PROCstore

880 IF KX=127 PROCclrchr:PROCstore

890 IF KX=9 PROCencode

900 VDU31, XX+CX, YX+RX: PROCon

910 UNTIL KX*135

920 PROCoff:PRINTTAB(0,25)SPC<199):PROCreturn
930 PRINTTAB(0,22)SPC(3)

940 UNTIL KX=9
950 ENDPROC
960

970 DEFPROCrecal 1

980 REM Recalls a character currently held in page &C00
990 PROCclrscrn
1000 REPEAT:ZX=1:KX=2

1010 PRINTTAB(O,22)SPC(3)TAB(4,22)SPC(34)TAB <5,27)SPC(110):PROCinput:IF VX
=0 THEN 1050

1020 QX=VX—224:FOR NX=0 TO 7:AX(NX+1)=7(&C00+(8*QX)+NX) : NEXT
1030 PROCdecode

1040 C0L0UR3:PRINTTAB(0,22)CHR*VX;" ="

1050 PROCreturn
1060 UNTIL KX*9

1950 IF KX=78 ENDPROC ELSE FOR NX=3072 TO 3327:?NX=0:NEXT

1960 ENDPROC

1970

1980 DEFPROCreturn

1990 REM Prints return to menu messages
2000 RESTORE 2080:READ A*,B*

2010 C0L0UR2:IF KX*52 THEN 2020 ELSE PRINTTAB<5,27)A*

2020 PRINTTAB<10,29)B*:REPEAT: KX*GET:UNTIL KX=9 OR KX=13 OR KX=135

2030 ENDPROC

2040

2050 DATA 102,102,102,102,102,60,24,0,120,108,102,102,102,108,120,0,102,10
2,102,102,102,102,60,0,60,102,6,12,24,48,126,0, 60,102,6,28,6,102,60,0
2060 DATA ’l’=create a new character code,’2'=recal1 an existing character
t '3’^analyse a character code,’4’*display full character set,’5’=clear the
board/store

2070 DATA ’TAB’=change value of bit,’COPY’=store new character code,’DELET
E’=clear selected square

2080 DATA ’RETURN’=process another character,’TAB’=return to the menu
2090 DATA "Enter the 8 digits of the code,",each being fallowed by a comma
,’COPY’=store analysed character,Storage of code error not allowed
2100 DATA ’l’*clear a nominated square,’2’=clear all the squares,’3’=clear
the defined character store,Do you really mean that? (Y/N)

It’s easy to complain
about advertisements.
But which ones?

Every week millions of advertisements appear in print, on posters or in the cinema.
Most of them comply with the rules contained in the British Code of Advertising
Practice.

But some of them break the rules and warrant your complaints.

If you’re not sure about which ones they are, however, drop us a line and we’
send you an abridged copy of the Advertising Code. Then, if an advertisement
bothers you, you’ll be justified in bothering us.

The Advertising Standards Authority. _

If an advertisement is wrong, were here to put it right.

ASA Ltd, Dept 2 Brook House, Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HN

Printer Stand

• For dot matrix printers

• Raises printer high enough to put
continuous stationery underneath

• Beautifully finished in clear perspex • Viglen quality every time

• Will accept paper up to 1 2 V 2 " wide • Non slip rubber pads

Dimensions: 15" (380mm) wide 12V' (320mm) deep 4" (90mm) high

£ 12-95 inouat

Carriage & Packing £ 2.00

COME TO VIGLEN FOR A FAST, FRIENDLY,PERSONAL SERVICE

To order, complete and send form, or ring
VERONICA, CAROLINE OR CATHY Now on 01-843 9903

C

‘“I

Post to: VIGLEN COMPUTER SUPPLIES, UNIT 7, TRUMPERS WAY, HANWELL, LONDON W7 2QA.
Please send me__(qty) PRINTER STANDS at £14.95 each. I enclose Cheque/P.O. for£_

. made out to

VIGLEN COMPUTER SUPPLIES or debit my ACCESS/BARCLAYCARD No._

Name.

n Signature.

Address.

Personal Computing Today July 1984

23

•_i_i_ , _i_i_i_i_i_i_rrrrr , “i"rrrrrrrrr , “ ,_ rr ,_, “i
1 softuiAKt ijj.oicoiozoiiiiirrrrrrrrrrri

•_ 11 • 1111 1111 i

r « _»iii rr«~rri~ri~rrrrri~i-i~i~i~i~i~i~i

Regatta '99

Rig your computer for sail power! This is a
tactical and fast m oving game for machines
with BASIC and extended BASIC.

By B. Johns.

This is a game designed
for two players which
relies on strategy rather
than 'shoot em up'.
Although as in real yacht
racing there is ample op¬
portunity for underhand
tactics (try cutting across
the front of your opponent
— this takes the wind out
of his sails in more ways
than one).

Setting course

The screen shows
two islands in the centre
of a lake around which the
yachts race. You may
follow any course that is
agreed upon between
you, providing the yachts
commence moving in a
clockwise direction and
finish at their original
starting point. An easy
race would be a simple
loop but a figure eight
course could be used
which would obviously be
more taxing or you could
design your own course
which could be as com¬
plicated as you wish.

Players should take
careful note of the wind
direction and strength
displayed as this will
affect the yachts'
movements e.g. if players
input a bearing of due east
for a duration of six
minutes when the wind
shows strength 2 due

south, their yacht will
move four spaces east
then two southeast as the
wind takes hold. If the
player had only input five
minutes the yacht would
move four spaces east

then one southeast.

The program runs in
BASIC or extended BASIC
and REM statements may
be omitted when keyed in
as none are referenced by
GOTO's etc.

program fisting

hints on conversion

how it runs

110-590

600-660

670-910

920-

1170-

1380-

1440-

1680-

1720-

1880-

2120 -

2160-

2250

1160

1370

1430

1670

1710

1870

2110

2150

2240

2310

2320-2640

2650-2680

2690-2700

Updates moving display and tests
for position

"Print At" subprogram for benefit of
Tl Basic

Player bearing and duration input
routine

Player movement factors

Collision or grounding routine

New game routine

Title and instructions

Blank out screen

Define characters

Set up screen

Initialise player positions

Restore screen colours

Selection of wind strength and

direction

Wind strength and direction bias
factors

Graphics data statements
End routine

CALL COLOR (A,B,C)

CALL SCREEN (A)

variables used

rl

_

1 A, B

Counters for loops

I AC, BC Players' present column numbers

I AD, BD Players' duration on set bearing

I AHM, BHM Players' horizontal movement factors 1

1 AL, BL Players' present line numbers

i

I AVM, BVM Players' vertical movement factors

c

Column number for 'Print At' routine 1

c

Column number for 'Print At' routine 1

GET

Current ASCII value of GCHAR
command

HD

Horizontal distortion caused by wind 1
direction

HM

Horizontal movement factor

i

L

Line number for 'Print At' routine

MISS

Counter to halt a yacht where
collision threatens

M

Current message

P

Player number

I SHIPS, SHIPB ASCII value of players' yachts

i

present graphic

I VD

Vertical distortion caused by wind V

I

direction

1

I VM

Vertical movement factor

I

1 WD

Wind Direction

1

I WD

Wind Strength

1

This program should be easy to convert with a good
working knowledge of your own computer. The
Texas does have its own peculiar commands and
those used have been explained below:

CALL KEY (0,K,S) is used to detect input

from the keyboard, (O)
merely sets the keyboard
up for use, (K) returns
the ASCII value of the
key pressed and (S)
returns a value of 0 until
a key is pressed,
takes character set (A)
and colours foreground
(B) and background (C)
colours screen (A)
according to the Texas
colour list. The colours
and codes used in this
program are White — 16,
Light Red — 10, Light
Yellow — 12, Light Blue
— 6 and Dark Green —
13 .

clears the screen and
would just be replaced by
own command,
reads the ASCII value of
the character found at
line (A), column (B) and
assigns that value to (C)
uses the Hexadecimal
code in (A$) to redefine
the character (A)
prints the character with
the ASCII value (C) at
line (A) and column (B)
and continues to print
horizontally (D) times.
Where (D) is not quoted,
the computer assumes
(D) to be 1.

The only parts which may cause problems with
conversion are the Print statements in lines 1 890
to 2110, each character used has been previously
redefined in lines 1 730 to 1 870. For ease of
conversion the symbols used are listed below with
their ASCII equivalents:

% 37 & 38 ( 40 ) 41 * 42 + 43,44 - 45.46
/ 47 a 97 b 98 x 120 y 121 h 104 i 105 j 106
k 107 I 108 m 109 n 100 o 111 p 112 q 113
r 114s 11 5 t 116u 117 v 118 w 119
The final point to note is that as Texas basic lacks
AND and OR statements, in certain lines *
replaces AND and + replaces OR.

CALL CLEAR

CALL GCHAR (A,B,C)

CALL CHAR (A,A$)

CALL HCHAR (A,B,C,D)

I I I I I I I I I I I

"l" " ■

i

program listing

i i i i i i i i i

* *

7-WS)THEN 180

60 REM
70 REM
80 REM

80 CALL CLEAR
100 GOTO 1450
REM MOVE
FDR A=1 TO
IF A<><

AVM=AVM+VD
AHM=AHM+HD
BVM=BVM+VD
BHM=BHM+HB
P=1

IF AD=0 THEN 380
AB=AD-1

CALL GCHAR < AL+AVM?AC+AHM- GET

110

120

130

140

150

160

170

180

180

200

210

>

220

230

240

250

260

270

280

280

300

310

320

330

THEN 230

THEN-370
THEN 280

IF GET037
GDSUB 1180
IF MI88=1
IF AHM<0
SHIPA=37
GOTO 280
SHIPA=88
CALL HCHARCAL?AC?37)
AL=AL+AVM
AC=AC+AHM
CALL HCHRF
IF <CAC=3;

<AL>3))THEN 340 !
340 M$= !i PLAYER 1

IS THE WINNER”

350
36 U
370
380
380
400
410

j

420

430

440

450

460

470

480

480

500

510

520

530

<BL>

540

550

560

570

buSU H

GOTO

610

1330

MI88=0
P=2

IF BD=0 THEN 580
BD=BB-1

CALL GCHAR < BL+BvM ?BC+BHM?GET

IF 6ET037 THEN 430 ELSE 450

GOSUB 1180

IF MI38=1 THEN 570

IF BHM<0 THEN 480

SHIPB=120

GOTO 480

SHIPB=121

CALL HCHARCBL? BC? 37)

BL=BL+BVM

BC=BC+BHM

CALL HCHAR<BL?BC? SHIPB)

i lF k k B L-=y.) + (. B C = 10)) + ((B L ■( 8 ) +

3))THEN 540 ELSE 580

M$=”PLAYER 2 IS THE WINNER“

bOSUB 610

GOTO 1330

MI88=0

680

PRINT

AT ROUTINE

NEXT
GOTO
REM

L=2.4

C=15 - L E N (M $ > / 2
FOR B=1 TO LENCM8)

CALL HCHAk(L ? C+B-ASC ( 3E6$(M$

580
530
600
610
620
630
640
- B-1> ) >

650 NEXT B
660 RETURN

670 REM PLAYER INPUT
680 FDR P=1 TO 2

630 M$= n PLAYER “LSTRSCP)?!,” TNPiiT
YOUR COURSE”

700 GOSUB 610
710 CALL KEYOj- Kt 8)

ELSE 250

720 IF 8=0 THEN 710

730 ON POST M ERDCXZSW”,CHRS

<K>,1>

+ 1 6U10 710- 330- 360- 830- 10:

20?105

0-1080- 1110-1140

740 IF P=2 THEN 780

i

750 AVM=VM

760 AHM=HM
.-'/O GOTO 800

780 BVM=VM

730 BHM=HM

800 m ="PLAYER H LSTR8<P)L i!

TIME

IPA)

COURSE HELD !!

%■( <AL<3) +

810 GOSUB 610

]

820 CALL KEY<0? K8)

830 IF 8=0 THEN 820

840 IF <K<43) + (K>54)THEN 820

850 IF P=2 THEN 380

860 AD=K-48

870 GOTO 830

880 BD=K-48

830 NEXT P

300 CALL HCHAR<24,3,38,28>

81U GOTO 120

320 REM COURSE SETTINGS

330 VM=-1

340 HM=0

350 GOTO 740

360 VM=-1

370 HM=1

380 GOTO 740

330 VM=0

1000 HM=1

1010 GOTO 740

1020 VM=1

1030 HM=1

1040 GOTO 740

1050 VM=1

1060 HM=0

10.-0 GOTO 740

1080 VM=1

I I

ri

mm i

I I

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I _l

rrrrrrrrrr

111 i 111111111 i_i_i a
" * * “ * § ii

program listing

] | IMj | w|*|z= — ]

lion GOTO 740

1110 VM=0

1120 HM=~1

1130 GOTO 740

1140 VM=-1

1150 HM=-1

1160 bum 740

1170 REM COLLISION

1180 ON P GOTO 1250,1190

1190 IF <GET=120>-KGET=121>THEN

1370

1200 IF <GET=97) + <GET=98>THEN 12
10 ELSE 1310

1210 MS="2 SLOWS TO AVOID CDLLIS
ION*

1220 GOSUB 610
1230 MISS=1
1240 GOTO 1370

1250 IF (GET=97> + (GET=98)THEN 13
70

1260 IF <GET=120)+<GET=12i)THEN
1270 ELSE 1310

1270 M$="1 SLOWS TO AVOID CDLLIS
ION"

1280 b U 8 U B 61U
1290 MISS=1
1300 GOTO 1370

1310 MS=STRSEP>&" HAS GROUNDED S
0 "«cSTRS<3-P>&" WINS *

1320 G 0 S U B 61U
1330 FOR 8=1 JO 1000
1340 NEXT 8
1350 CALL CLEAR
1360 GOTO 1380
1370 RETURN

1380 M$=" [ANOTHER GAME ?3

s:

1390 GOSUB 610
1400 CALL KbY<0,K-S>

1410 IF S=0 THEN 1400
1420 IF K<>89 THEN 2670
1430 GOTO 1690
1440 REM INSTRUCTIONS
1450 CALL CLEAR
1460 CALL SCREEN a3)

1470 MS="YACHT RACE”

1480 L=10
1490 GOSUB 620

1500 MS=" A STRH! EbY bHMb hub! IWU

is

1510 L=13

1520 GOSUB 620

1530 M$= ! 'BY BARRY JOHNS' 1

1540 L=16

1550 GOSUB 620

1570 NEXT 8

1580 CALL CLEAR

1590 PRINT * PLAYERS MOVE BY SE
TTING A COURSE THEN THEY HUS
T DECIDE HOW LONG TO HOLD"

1600 PRINT * TO TH8T COURSE ALL
OWING FDR DIRECTION AND FDRC

E OF THE WIND, THE LONGER"

1610 PRINT * ANY COURSE IS HELD
, THE GREATER THE TENDENCY T
0 BE BLOWN OFF COURSE AND"

1620 PRINT * THE HIGHER THE FDR
CE OF THE WIND, THE SOONER I
T WILL HAPPEN,

1630 PRINT " INPUT COURSE BY M
EANS OF ARROW KEYS AND FOR

A DIAGONAL MOVE WRCZ,*
1640 PRINT ” HOLD COURSE FOR U
p TO SIX MINS, INPUT El-61

:s s = s
s s s

1650 PRINT " PRESS ANY KEY,,,,
THEN PLEASE WAIT FOR SETUP

ii

1660 CALL KEY <0,K,S >

1670 IF S=0 THEN 1660
1680 REM COLOUR WIPE
1690 FOR 8=1 TO 14
1700 CALL CULUKEA, 1,1)

1710 NEXT A

1720 REM CHAR, DEFINITION
1730 CALL CHAR<37,"FFFFFFFFFFFFF
FFF" >

1740 CALL CHAR<38,"0")

1750 RESTORE 2650
1760 hOR H=4U IU 4 7
1770 READ AS
1780 CALL CHAR(A,AS>

1790 NEXT A

1800 FOR A=97 TO 120 STEP 23
1810 CALL CHARCA,"040C1C3E7F04FF
7E" >

1820 CALL CHAREA+1, "2030387CFE30
FF7E")

1830 NbXt A

1840 FDR 8=104 TO 119

1850 READ AS

I860 CALL CHARES,AS>

1870 NEXT A

1880 REM SCREEN SET UP

1890 PRINT "KSrKTKKMSKbfcLuTU&KKT

UT8:8:8:U8:8: "

1900 PR I NT " LLhX.j tKK&Kut i XXX kuhX
XX-jtxXkK"

1910 PRINT ''KpXXXXJ urHXXXXXXXXXX

;xj

I I
, |"l'
"l"l
“i"Y

in

t>

I I

i“r

rv

i i i i i i i

K I I

:

niiii

i

■

m 1mm

wmm

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

I

program listing

..

_ . .

.. . .. „ _ .. .. ..

__

_ _ . . . . _ , ___ _ _

- -• —

r r:. j. r= i

-i- ■'= • = •■= • '= --= ■'= ■ '= ''a■ = •• = 'a •• = •'= - a* 4 •'= • =

•- n l. l. n =_• n M K K //• y - m j o y- H )

= "=-=N H

2290

UD=INT < RND*8) +1

1930

PRINT

: v fi 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

2300

ON WD 60SUB 2330,2370,2410,

■ VVd -

2450:

, 2490 , 2530 , 2570 , 2610

1940

PRINT

55 lj V V V V v y v* y Vy y y y* V v v v =-• =,-

2310

SOTO 680

.* *y = .•is
= •’=*■ s - 3 "

2320

KEN WD 8 WS SETUP

1950

PRINT

2330

VD=-1

•=,=,=• i!
s * s • s :

2340

HD=0

1960

PRINT

■: __ = .• = .- = .- =.-a.- =

r - •■=• = •• = •■=• = -• a -=•■ = -■ = ■• = •■ s -• = • - 4f*i6;jvf i

2350

CALL HCHAR< 22 , 30 , 40s

■=•'=■=■■ =

vv - is
= •■' = *■ = -T-

2360

RETURN

1970

PRINT

■ • © ■'=•••= 4 4 □ W V W L 4 '•= 4 4 P: & © & 4

4 0 •' u

VD=-1

m 333 >

= -= -■ =

2380

HD= 1

1980

PRINT

:• _ - .= ■=.= . .V = . = . = .

r~ •=■' = -' = -=: v: •— -■ = -■ = -'= k 6 ;sV :V :V

2390

CALL HCHAR < 22 , 30 •= 41 ;«

8 vm 3 >

•• V v : i
= ■' = '

2400

RETURN

1990

PRINT

II .- = •=.• Wr-.V 0 V 0 ■•'= —:‘s

4 -: . 4 -: 4 -: 4 -: 4 -: 4*: r~= jr- 4-: 4 -: 4*:

2410

VD=0

2000 PRINT

tVV'/Wc 11

2010 PRINT ^344=7^88888644*8888

V V V V V V : ::

: ■■ = ■■ =

2020 PRINT i yL33334R888TH33s8888

IV344440M

2030 PRINT !i 8P44343j88i434o8888H

yvyvvvvr. h

2040 PRINT "88m33333s©3344r88u jx
= . = .- =.-• *=.-• = ■• = . = . ■:

2050 PRINT n 888vi_333KH3333jTl333

= ■• = .=■- = .- = .=■• = ■• L ■ H

r*.

2060 PRINT !i W8 E 8 R m33333333333333

VWWW KI ”

•’ = •■ = • =■■ s ' =■* = •* s : “

2070 PRINT

VVVVVVV : n

2080 PRINT "S.8*Dp333333333333av
l_333ovmo"

2090 PRINT "&-,+8ffi33333333333N88

4 *: w v w =_•: 4 -: =_•:

2100 PRINT "Z8K8C&l.33nvm3333oBEA
UF0RT888 n

2110 ERIN i ”8888888vw888vyvw888&

2120 flL=5
2130 AC=10
2140 BL=6
2150 BC=10

2160 REM COLOUR SETS
2180 CALL CuLLiR<1-6-13)

2ISO FOR A=2 TO 8
2190 CALL CDLQe<A,16?13)

2200 NEXT A

2 21U CALL C0LUK : 9-1U , 6)

2220 CALL COLOR <10-13- 6 >

2230 CALL COLOR <11,13- 6 >

2240 CALL COLOR<12812,6>

2250 REM WIND 3TR, AND DIR,

2260 RANDOMIZE
2270 WS=INT <RND*4> +1

2420 HD=1

2430 CALL HCHAR< 22,30 - 42 >

2440 RETURN
2450 VD=1
2460 HD=1

2470 CALL HCHAR < 22, 30 - 4:-; >

24S0 RETURN
2490 VD=1
2500 HD=0

2510 CALL HCHAR<22,30,44 >

2520 RETURN
2530 VD=1
2540 HD=-1

2550 CALL HCHAR < 22,30,45 <

2560 RETURN
2570 VD=0
2580 HD=-1

2590 CALL HCHAR < 22,30 r . 46 ;

2600 RETURN
2610 -VD=-1
2620 HD=-1

2630 CALL HCHAR < 22,30,47)

2640 RETURN

2650 DA!A OS1C2A080S080808,0F030
509102,00000402FF0204,0000201009
05030F,0S0S0808082A1C0S, 00000408
9080COF0

2660 DATA 00002040FF402, FUCUHU9U
0S04,FEFCFCF8E0C0C080,FFFCFOCOEO
FOEOSO, 7F3F3F1F07030301, FF3F0FO3
070F0701

2670 DA I A 80C0C0E0FSFCFCFE,8080C
0CUE4tEPEh F,010303071F3F3F7F,000
30F3F1F0F1F7F,FEFFFEFCFCFEFFFE,F
FFEF8FCF0F8FEFE

2680 DATA 7FFF7F3F3F7FFF7F,7F7F1

F0F3F1F7FFF,FFFFFFFFFFFFE742,FFF

FFFFFEFCBC301,42E7FFFFFFFFFFFF,8

0C3D3F7FFFFFFFF

2690 CALL CLEAR

2700 END

LI

Ail available for Spectrum 48K at £5.95. Selected titles available from
larger branches of Boots, Greens, John Lewis Partnership, Rumbeiows,
W.H. Smith and ail good computer shops or mail order from

Cases Computer Simulati ons L td., 14 Langton Way, London SE3 7TL

{■£@0 WHSMITH

? Strategy Games. They're no pushover.

PLUNDER

PACIFIC

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

1 uio.iuc •_ , _ , : , : , : , : , : , :cr , " , “r , " , "rrrrrrrrrrrri

111111111111

i rrrrri-rrr.-rrrr.-»-i*r.-r.-.-.

Va)

w

w

Drop a line to us at 1 Golden Square
London W1R 3AB

Dear PCT

Firstly a big thank you for
producing an extremely
interesting and helpful
magazine.

I hope you can help
me with the following in¬
quiry. I would like to know
if a Digital Equipment Cor¬
poration RX50 Diskette
Drive can be linked to a
BBC Micro Model B. If this
is possible, would a
special interface be
required?

I hope you can supply
the answer.

Yours faithfully,

J Richards
London

From studying the
specifications for the
RX50, it appears to be a
perfectly ordinary 80
track disk drive. However,
no details are given as to
what type of bus connec¬
tor it has. The BBC needs
a standard Shugart bus
and of course, will require
a disk interface and disk
filing system. Contact a
dealer who can supply the
interface and check that it
can be used with your
drives. If necessary re¬
quest a 'test run' as inter¬
facing is not always sim¬
ple. It is much safer to
choose a system your
dealer supports and to
choose a dealer who is
competent at supplying

correct information about
the equipment.

Dear PCT

According to the Oric I
handbook it should be
possible to print out data
on the office Epson
MX-1 00 printer.

However, when I con¬
nect them up, not only
can I not print, but the
Oric turns sulky and many
of the keys will not
operate. Can you give me
any advice as to how to
debug the hardware.
Yours faithfully,

M S Howells
Milford Haven

The reason for this is that
the Oric will not print to an
Epson which has an
RS232 interface fitted
even if you are only using
the centronics port.

Dear PCT

I own a VIC20 and printer
and although the VIC
satisfies most of my re¬
quirements, I would like to
buy a Commodore 64.
Could you tell me whether
any companies or shops
carry out a 'part ex¬
change' scheme for com¬
puters.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Hammond
Camberley

It is often possible to per¬
suade your dealer to part
exchange your old com¬
puter for a new one but as
second hand computers
have such a low re-sale
value, the exchange is
done as a favour by
dealers eager to ensure
your custom rather than
as a cash-earning deal.
For this reason do not ex¬
pect to get very much for
your computer.

A small ad in your local
paper is probably the best
solution. As you will want
to keep the C2N cassette
deck remember that the
purchaser will have to
spend a further £40 on a
cassette unit, so do not
put too high an asking
price on your VIC. The
VIC is, however, still sell¬
ing very well so providing
you ask the right price you
should have no problem
finding a buyer.

Dear PCT

Please enlighten me on
the following:

1. When one programs
the expanded VIC 20,
which gets used up first,
the expander or the inter¬
nal RAM?

2. Can either RAM be
freely selected in any
way?

As 'non volatile' RAM
units are on offer, I would

like to be certain that
these would be first in line
for program writing,
otherwise there would be
no protection in the event
of power failure while
writing.

I would like to use
'self-powered' RAM ex¬
panders as a means of ins¬
tant access to a few
favourite programs selec¬
table by line number, yet
prevent their destruction
when loading from
cassette tape in the nor¬
mal way.

Yours faithfully,

E L Bands
South Africa

When you switch on a VIC
20 it checks all the RAM
by writing to every byte
and then checking that it
has written correctly. This
means that even if you did
not switch off the RAM
the program would be
destroyed when the VIC
was switched back on.
You can prevent this by
disabling the write line to
the RAM when you
switch on. However, as
the RAM in the VIC will be
reset this would cause the
start of a BASIC program
and any pointers to be
lost. For this reason non
volatile RAM is only
suitable for storing
machine code programs.

in a national newspapers,
looking for a more ad¬
vanced micro. A woman
phoned me up and offer-
red me a Sinclair QL,
which delighted me as it
looks to be an excellent
computer. I decided
against buying it when
she told me the price —
£5600!!

When I had recovered
from the shock I bought a
brand new VIC 20 Starter
Pack for £441. So com¬
puter enthusiasts in the
U.K. think yourselves
lucky!

Yours faithfully,

Andrew Marais
Zimbabwe

We take your point,
Andrew. Compared to
that sort of price, we real¬
ly do have little to moan
about and with the con¬
tinued price war between
manufacturers real
bargains can now be had.
The QL does look on
paper to be a fairly
remarkable machine, but
you probably did the right
thing in not taking up the
offer. Apart from the ex¬
tortionate price (U.K.
price is £399) you would
probably have had a very
long wait for delivery
since, at the time of
writing this, no machines
have been released to the
public.

Dear PCT

Being a regular reader of
your excellent magazine I
often see complaints
about overpriced micros.
Having recently sold my
ZX-81 64K I put an advert

Dear PCT

I am writing to ask two
basic questions concern¬
ing the Dragon 32 micro. I
have read some reports on
the Dragon (not in PCT)

which state it has a 1 6 bit
microprocessor and
others which state it has
an 8 bit! Please tell me
which is correct.

My second question is
what is the maximum
RAM expansion of the
Dragon? Does it enlarge to
64K. Thanks for an in¬
teresting magazine.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Bunting
Powys

The number of bits any
chip has is a very vague
quantity. The Dragon uses
the 6809E as a CPU (cen¬
tral processing unit). The
usual definition of the
number of bits in a chip is
the number it can read in
from outside memory at
any one time. Judged on
these standards the
Dragon is an 8 bit com¬
puter. However, once
read in the data can be ad¬
ded to other data inside
the chip so that it exceeds
8 bits. A 6502 CPU, as
found in the BBC Micro
and VIC 20 would receive
a bit and send the
message 'Hey, this
number is too big for me
to handle'. The program¬
mer would then have to
deal with the number as if
it were two smaller
numbers. The 6809 chip
has double length
registers (16 bits) and
although this does not
make it a true 1 6 bit chip.

it does make it superior to
an 8 bit.

Remember the CPU is not
the only thing to consider
when buying a computer.
The standard of the
BASIC, the operating
system, the running
speed and various other
factors should be weighed
against your requirements
and budget. Because the
6809E is an 8 bit chip it
can address 2 8 bytes of
memory. This works out
to 65535 bytes or 64K.
In the Dragon 32, 32K is
used by the computer to
store the BASIC and all
the information it needs to
talk to you. All this is held
in the ROM (random order
memory). The other 32K
is held in the RAM (ran¬
dom access memory) and
this is where programs are
stored. The Dragon 64
has two lots of RAM, each
of 32K and when running
can switch between
them. This is known as
pageing and in theory it
allows for infinite expan¬
sion of RAM. However,
such a system is difficult
to cope with and awk¬
ward to use. It can also be
very slow. For this reason
it is not possible to ex¬
pand beyond 32K.
Besides, unless you are
writing very complex pro¬
grams, 32K should be
enough for most people. If
you have a lot of data con¬
sider a disk drive.

Vou con order more for /ess/
at CONWAY

COMPUTER PERIPHERALS & OFFICE CONSUMABLES

0 00

At Conway Computer Services we can offer you the lowest prices for diskettes,
ribbons, binders and lots more. Just look at our prices!

BROTHER EP 44 - THE QUALITY
IN SILENT AFFORDABILITY

EP44 TYPEWRITER/PRINTER

EP44 BLACK CASSETTE RIBBON (MIN 3)

EP44 THERMAL PAPER -100 SHEETS

EP44 PLAIN PAPER-100 SHETS

EP44 ROLL PAPER HOLDER

EP44 THERMAL PAPER ROLL

EP44 PLAIN PAPER ROLL

★ High quality print due to a 24x18 dot matrix

★ 4K memory for text storing and editing

★ RS232C serial interface

★ Automatic paper insert ★ Automatic carrier return

★ Automatic underline ★ Automatic centering

★ Right margin flush^ Line by line printing

★ Super and Sub script

★ Battery powered noiseless

★ Printing on either plain or thermal paper

★ Lightweight, extemely compact

★ Paper end alarm

★ Roll paper holder as option
at £230.00 inclusive of VAT

Add £8 for P&P and insurance
+ VAT

£230.00
£2.23
£4.89
£2.24
£6.84
£4.03
£2.88

® 1 * 17 -

PLEASE ADD £1.00 FOR P&P PER RIBBON/PAPER

SEIKOSHA COLOUR MATRIX PRINTER

-7COLOURS

GP700A £399
GP250X£225
GP100A £179

The amazing Seikosha GP700A
prints 7 colours, plus
more than 30 shades! All
colours and shades are
printed in a single pass.

50 characters, 10 lines
per second, printing
direction, character set,
dot graphics, dot pitch,
line spacing, paper feed etc.

At the very exceptional price of:
Add £8 for P&P and insurance

8' DISKETTES

WABASH

£

DATALIFE NASHUA

Single Side/Single Density
Single Side/Double Density
Double Side/Single Density
Double Side/Double Density
5i" DISKETTES
Single Side/Single Density
Single Side/Double Density
Double Side/Double Density
Single Side/Quad Density 96TPI
Double Side/Quad Density 96TPI
Add 95p per Box of 10 for P&P and insurance

MAXELL

£

23.00

31.75

26.34

34.38

27.60

20.00

27.94

40.13

28.75

35.65

-

N/A

30.48

35.65

29.59

45.88

20.12

22.65

19.74

N/A

23.00

22.65

21.39

28.64

23.58

32.75

24.69

37.84

28.75

29.65

31.24

37.84

31.05

41.40

32.89

49.34

PRINTER RIBBON PRICE LIST

Epson FX100

9.20

7.48

Printer Classification

6 +

12+

Epson HX20

3.22

2.76

£

£

IBM 5152

4.22

3.45

Brother HR1 Multistrike

4.20

3.77

Juki 6100 MS

2.21

1.70

Brother HR15 Multistrike

4.95

4.60

Juki 6100 MS

4.20

3.77

Brother HR1 Fabric

4.14

3.68

Mannesman Tally MT80

8.17

7.71

Brother HR15 Correct

2.70

2.59

MT100,110,120,160

5.75

5.64

Centronics 150

3.62

3.34

MT130,140,180

5.75

5.64

Commodore 3022

2.42

2.07

OKI 80, 82, 83

2.42

2.07

Commodore 4022

4.14

3.45

OKI Microline 84

3.92

3.57

Commodore 8022

3.62

3.42

Ricoh 1600 Multistrike

3.16

2.88

Commodore 8024

4.11

3.80

Seikosha GP80

4.60

4.60

Diablo Hytype 1 MS

5.95

4.14

SeikoshaGP100, GP250

4.60

4.60

Diablo Hytype II MS

2.82

2.70

Seikosha GP7004-C

32.20

32.20

DRE 8000

13.80

12.65

ShinwaCP80

8.17

7.71

Epson FX80, RX80

4.14

3.45

StarGemina/Delta

2.42

2.07

Liftoff Tapes

1.44

1.32

SONY 3.5 FLOPPY DISK

As recommended for Apricot and all
3.5" diskdrives.

Box of 10-£51.50

Quantity discount available on 5 or
more boxes.

Add 50p per box P&P

STAR DELTA -10.
STAR
PRINTER

The best value Matrix printer! The Star Delta -10 has as
many as 10 functions including: 160 CPS Bi-Directional
logic seeking, up to 136 columns, 5, 6,8,10,12 and 17
characters per inch PLUS: parallel macro instruction set and
a whole host of other goodies.

OPEN AN ACCOUNT NOW
PROTECT YOUR FLOPPY & MINI DISKS

Lockable, secure, with dividers, anti-static in beautiful smoke and white colour

GEMIN110
GEMIN115
DELTA 10
DELTA15

120CPS/80 COL
120CPS/132 COL
160CPS/80 COL
160CPS/132 COL

NETT

£210.00

£310.00

£330.00

£450.00

VAT

£241.50

£356.50

£379.50

£517.50

Add £8 for P&P and insurance

F90

210x240x230mm 350x240x230mm

£23.00 £34.50

For 40 Disk For 90 Disk

£1.95 P&P per box ordered

M85

210x180x165mm
£16.10
For 40 Disk

250x180x165mm

£21.85

For 90 Disk

JUKI 6100

Amazing Daisywheel
Printer, capable of 20 CPS
print speed, all Wordstar
features, emulates diablo
protocolours.

JUKI 6100 WITH

2K BUFFER-£395

Add £8 for P&P and insurance

CLEANING KIT

for 5.25" and 8" Diskette
Drive Heads
at £15.00 plus VAT =
£17.25

Add 75p per box P&P

SHINWA-CP80 PRINTER

With 80 CPS, bi-directional logic seeking 80 column,
friction and adjustable tractor feed, square needles up to
19x13 matrix, hi-res graphics and block graphics -

At the low price of £215 inclusive

Please add £8 for P&P and insurance

conujdY

COMPUTER
SERVICES
LTD.

BROTHER DAISYWHEEL
PRINTERS

HR1 16 2K £632.50

HR15 18 3K £395.00

HR25 £675.00

Please specify if Serial or
Centronics Interface required.

Add £8 for P&P and insurance

EPSON PRINTERS

RX80T

RX80FT

FX80

MX82T

MX100FT-3

FX100FT

100

100

160

80

100

160

£

275

315

415

330

470

550

Add £8 for P&P and insurance

Tel: (01) 8001796

DATA PROCESSING SUPPLIES & PERIPHERALS
39 CONWAY ROAD • LONDON ■ N15 3BB

HOW TO ORDER

You may purchase any of the items listed by MAIL ORDER ONLY. All you have
to do is list your requirements on a piece of paper, and post to us with your
cheque or P.O. made payable to CONWAY COMPUTER SERVICES LTD.
Allow 7 to 14 days for delivery.

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr»“rrrrrrrrrrrrrri

i i"i~i 11111 i~i

Software

Reviews

r Title:

Jackpot 64

Type:

Cassette

Software House:

Mr. Chip Software, 1

Neville Place,

Llandudno, Gwynedd

LL30 3BL

Price:

£5.50

^Machine:

CBM 64 J

STAR TABLE

relaxing. It is obviously no
match for 'Revenge. . .' or
'International Soccer',but
then it isn't meant to be
and at least you know
what to expect.

In conclusion if you
are looking for a fruit
machine program then
this very neat implemen¬
tation of one will suit you.
However, if you are used
to the high speed thrills of
'Gridrunner' or the
outstanding graphics of
"International Soccer"
then you may be disap¬
pointed. I have a feeling
you may be pleasantly
surprised. J.G.

My initial thoughts whilst
loading this program were
that it wouldn't hold my
attention for more than
five minutes.

However, I must con¬
fess I was strangely ad¬
dicted by this game.

The object of the
game is simple. You start
the game with £ 1 00 cash
and the aim is to reach the
jackpot figure of £250 by
playing the machine,
which costs £1 for each
spin of the reels. The
graphics for the fruits and
the actual spinning of the
reels is excellent and the
game offers the usual
hold, nudge and gamble
features as in real life. You
operate these features by
pressing the appropriate
function key, apart from
the hold feature which is
operated by typing in the
number of the reel to be
held (1-4). Even though
there was no money to be
made, or lost in my case, I
found the temptation to
'have just one more go'

kept me occupied far
longer than I had originally
expected. After playing
many frantic 'shoot-em-
up' type arcade deriva¬
tions of space invaders, I
found this game very

Screen display

Addictiveness

Ease of use

Overall

90%

i_«_i_ a 5L t «2 r 5” ev, © u,s ..... i i 11 i i i i rrri

LLUjjjjjjjICCCiICCCOIC'jjlC'jlLCCujlO!

that the background is
slightly plain. However,
this has no effect on the
very addictive nature of
the game. Bubble Bus
have exploited the large
memory of the '64 and
have included a very
melodious tune to liven up
the period in between
games.

This game is one of
the best f have seen on
the '64, and deserves a
place in every '64
owner's software library.

[Machine

Dragon 32/64

(1-2 joysticks)

The difference between
this game and others of its
genre {shoot~em~up,
machine code) is that you
control two ships at once.
The FIRE button allows
both ships to fire at once
and learning to control
this two takes a great deal
of skill and practice.

The aim of the game is
to prevent the aliens
reaching your two lines of
movement. This is ac¬
complished by shooting
them. If, however, they
reach your axis and begin

to move towards you all is
not lost. You have a
limited supply of Electros
which clear both fines of
movement of any aliens
present. In later stages of
the game, pods appear
which can explode and
damage your ship,
whereupon you lose a life.

The graphics are
good, though not spec¬
tacular but the sound ef¬
fects are excellent. The
screen is well laid out with
options for 1 or 2 players.
Overall a good game and
very addictive. S.M.

[Machine: vie 20 unex

A nice but fairly widely us¬
ed 'Slaughter the Alien'
type game. The instruc¬
tions supplied give you a
lot of chit chat about who
you are supposed to be
and the space craft you
are flying, but not a lot on
the game itself.

When the game is
presented on the screen
the score and high score
cannot be seen. Nowhere
does it mention that you
need to use the cursor key
to centre the screen. FI
starts the game. You pass

through five waves of
play and when you finish
the fifth wave you start on
wave one again.

There is a high score
table for the top four
scores, but you cannot
add your name to the
table which takes a little
of the excitement away.
The sound and graphics
are reasonable and for the
price you cannot really
complain, but a little more
effort on the instructions
would have been helpful.

J.E.S.

[Machine: cbm 64

Title: Laser Zone

Type: Tape

Software House: Salamander Software

17 Norfolk Rd.,
Brighton BN1 4AA
Price: £7.95

Title: Space Swarm

Type: Tape

Software House: Software Projects, Bear
Brand Complex, Allerton
Rd, Woolton, Liverpool
L25 7SF

Price: £5.95

Title: Bumping Buggies

Type: Tape

Software House: Bubble Bus, 87 High

Street, Tonbridge, Kent
TNI 1LS

Price: £6.99

STAR TABLE

Screen display

**

Addictiveness

***

Ease of use

****

Overall

60%

STAR TABLE

Screen display

***

Addictiveness

*****

Ease of use

* * * *

Overall

85%

! STAR TABLE |

Screen display

*** *

Addictiveness

*****

Ease of use

****

Overall

90%

electro^

;hra®!2

[Machine: Spectrum 16K/48K

in android technology
which has an unlimited
energy supply, but unfor¬
tunately only has five lives
and five shields. The an¬
droid is a little difficult to
control at first, but at
least the Kempston
joystick is catered for.
However, the key con¬
figurations are very wide-
ranging and a suitable set
can soon be found. The
screen displays are very
comprehensive with a
direction and position in¬
dicator, showing the cor¬
rect course to follow.

This first program in
the android series has cer¬
tainly set an excellent
standard in both graphics
and game content which
will, hopefully, be con¬
tinued in Android 2.

This program from Vortex
is the first in a series of
real time arcade games
featuring a highly
manoeuvrable android.
The idea of the game is to
blast your way to the
reactor, which is about to
explode and destroy the
world. When you reach
your goal, which you
must do in a preset time,
you are required to
destroy the reactor to
complete your mission.
Trying to prevent you
from doing this are
various obstacles, in¬
cluding walls which you
must blast your way
through, mazes to con¬
fuse your sense of direc¬
tion and four types of
mutants who defend their
territory vigorously. Your
only weapon is the latest

Unlike

your spacecraft to
penetrate various alien
defences and destroy the
central nucleus of their
moonbase. Unfortunately
your spacecraft con¬
sumes fuel at such a rapid
rate that in order to con¬
tinue the game, fuel
dumps must be attacked
to replenish your supply.
You do, of course, earn
points throughout and if
lucky enough this will
qualify you to enter the
high score table at the end
of a run.

most games
you don't have to begin
on screen one. You may
start at any phase of the
mission you wish. This is
more satisfying than
fighting your way through
preliminary screens, never
lasting long enough to see
the others — and getting
fed up of trying. Indeed
this facility gives five
games in one and with a
choice of five skill levels
included, what more
could you ask for? J.V.W.

[Machine

Acorn Electron

I thoroughly enjoyed play¬
ing Moonraider. It's one of
those addictive games
where you're left wonder¬
ing whether it's more like¬
ly the keyboard will wear

out first due to the cons¬
tant bashing it receives, or
whether you will.

You have five dif¬
ferent screens in which to
zap, bomb and manoeuvre

I'm sure that Program Gorilla has elements of
Power have come up with speed of thought, judge-
a best-seller here. Killer ment and tenacity that

i isiiiiiiliii wmmmmmmm, iiiii iiiiii;iiiiiii

111 ill i illliilllli iillii lull in II

Title: Moonraider

Type: Tape

Software House: Micro Power,

Northwood Hs, North
St, Leeds LS7 2AA
Price: £7.95

STAR TABLE

Screen display

*****

Addictiveness

*****

Ease of use

*****

Overall

100%

STAR TABLE

Screen display

* * * *

Addictiveness

*****

Ease of use

* * * *

Overall

85%

Title:

Androids 1

Type:

Tape

Software House:

Vortex Software, 280

Brooklands Rd,

Brooklands, Manchester

M23 9HD

Price:

£5.95

Title:

Killer Gorilla

Type:

Tape

Software House:

Micro Power,

Northwood Hse, North

St, Leeds LS7 2AA

Price:

£6.95

1 Machine:

Acorn Electron

!-!-! Software Reviews *— 1 — 1 —*—’ *_*_*-_* *_*_* * *_*_ , _* *

_ _ _ _ I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I | | |

combine to make a game
that I have come back to
many times.

The object of the
game is to climb to the top
of each stage as quickly
as possible, extra points
being given for speed,
whilst avoiding various
hazards. There are four
stages which are cyclical.

The first stage has
ramps along which you
must guide the man that
you control, trying to
avoid the barrels that are
rolling down to flatten
you. The second stage
consists of conveyors
along which appear
custard pies (!) which
must be avoided. The
third stage has lifts and
steps which involve jump¬
ing from place to place

with immaculate timing.
The final stage has a
pyramid which once com¬
pletely traversed (which
isn't easy) collapses and
defeats the gorilla. At
each stage axes are
available which may be
used to destroy nasties,
but this involves losing
time which is limited. At
the top of each stage
there lies an heiress who
is rescued once you reach
her. The relevance of the
heiress and the gorilla
eludes me, but the game
is still a delight to play.

The graphics are ex¬
cellent, especially on the
third stage, and combined
with smooth movement
this game must be a
winner. G. de B.

r Title:

Gridtrap

Type:

Cassette

Software House:

Livewire, Sumlock, 198

Deansgate, Manchester

Price:

£7.95

^Machine:

CBM 64 J

The idea of this game is to
move your character, Mr.
Livewire, around a room
defusing time bombs.
These bombs are counting
down from 30 and you
hav to defuse them before
they explode. The playing
area is a grid of squares in
which your character,
known as LW, can move
in any of the four usual
directions. However each
square LW steps on im¬
mediately becomes a trap
and cannot be stepped on
again. You are able,
however, to step off each
edge and reappear on the
opposite side and also
there is a facility to scroll
the row you are on either
left or right. This has the
effect of shuffling the
squares in either direction
and adding extra squares
to the appropriate ends of
the row you are on. There
are 4 'bones' squares in¬
dicated by flags and also
'death squares' indicated
by skull and crossbones
which must be avoided at
all cost! All this com¬
plicated by the fact that a
rather large pair of brown
boots are also wandering
the grid attempting to
'boot' LW out of the
room! If you manage to
defuse the bomb another
appears, up to a maximum

of five, after which you go
up to the next level. There
are nine levels in all, each
one progressively more
difficult with more 'death
squares' and more 'big
boots' to avoid. On higher
levels the boots even ac¬
quire strategy as they ap¬
pear to stalk you!

Although at first this
seems quite complex you
soon get the hang of the
game and I found it rather
exciting. There are plenty
of features added to the
game and the graphics are
excellent. Throughout the
game a background tune
is played, but you have an
option to suppress this.

I particularly enjoyed
the introduction which
displayed all the function
keys being 'pressed' by
the aforementioned 'big
boots', and the game has
been very well thought
out. There is even an op¬
tion to redefine the play¬
ing keys for anyone who
doesn't own a joystick,
and I got the impression
that a lot of work had
gone into the design of
this game. J.G.

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

rz~s~ t ~crrrr ~i~ri m rrrrrrrcrrcrrrr~ii

i yn |<5St i i"i i • 1111

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Sinclair Q.l.

Reviewed

The Q.L. has finally arrived! Simon_

Rockman examines it.

§3

The situation regarding
the Sinclair QL changes so
rapidly it is hard to keep
up to date with the news.
This article reflects the
situation on April 26th.

The new Sinclair QL is
a black box, measuring
138mm by 46mm by
472mm and comes with
small pegs to place over
the rubber feet so that it
can be propped up. This is
necessary because the
keyboard is flat, not step¬
ped like on most micros,
so you need it to be
presented to you at an
angle. Beneath the black

full stroke keyboard lies a
membrane similar to that
on the Spectrum. How¬
ever, the QL is much nicer
to use. The early cases
had problems with stick¬
ing keys but this seems to
have been sorted out and
all the QL's customers will
receive fine keyboards,
quite pleasant to use.

Internal power

The QL's 68008 CPU
(central processing unit) is
one of the most powerful
in widespread use. It has a

32 bit internal architec¬
ture which allows it to
crunch numbers very
rapidly, and has divide
and multiply functions in
its instruction set. Many
larger micros use a similar
chip, including the Sage
super micro, the Apple
Lisa and the IBM XT 370
(which is so powerful that
you need Pentagon per¬
mission to buy one!)

There has been such
rapid growth in the use of
the 68000 family of chips
that many new programs
have been written to take
advantage of it. One of

37

i.i.i.OircrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriT
L sincioirai. ficvicwcd"f;"; : ff; : ; : ; : o:;:o:o:o:c

llujjjjjjjjICCCCCCCCOICiICCCCCCOI 1 .

the most impressive uses
has been to implement
Unix, an operating
system, which serves the
same sort of function as
CP/M but is friendlier,
easier to use and offers
more flexibility; it does,
however, require a vast
amount of disk space
(around 1 1 megabytes or
235 Spectrum-fulls) so it
will be a while before it is
available for the QL. You
will need a hard disk and
the promised 1 / 2
Megabyte ram pack, as
well as a lot of money to
buy Unix. It was surpris¬
ing to learn that the RAM
pack design has been
finished, but the chips it
requires will be very ex¬
pensive for a fair while. A
128K version, using
cheaper, compatible chips
is possible and would be
nice in the interim. Nigel
Searle, M.D. of Sinclair
Research, said recently
that a hard disk interface
or a hard disk unit would
be available at the end of
this year. If that arrives on
time I will be very surpris¬
ed.

Premature

launch?

There was no mention
of the machine being un¬
finished at the launch but
a month later no-one out¬
side Sinclair, or the
favoured software houses
had seen one. It was then
that Sinclair started to ad¬
mit that the computer was
unfinished, problems in
the final stages of produc¬
tion put deliveries back a
month, to the end of
March. However, Sinclair
was not promising anyone
delivery before the end of
April, so when the March
deadline came and went
without a single machine
being delivered (only a
short test run of 80

v ®a> ©

Rear of QL showing
connector ports

1 Connections to Q.L. Network

2 Power

3 Connection to high quality monitor for 80
column display

4 Connection to domestic T.V.

5 RS 232 ports (one to send, one to receive)

6 Joystick ports

7 ROM socket

machines had gone
through the Feltham fac¬
tory), no-one made a fuss.

The delay would ap¬
pear to be due to pro¬
blems regarding the
operating system. Even in
July the machines will
have an extra board carry¬
ing EPROMs with the
parts of the BASIC and
operating system that the
Sinclair engineers were
unable to fit inside the
specified 32K of ROM.

The new ROM is 48K
long of which 8K is unus¬
ed and has the bonus of
LOGO type commands,
some new graphics
routines such as recolour
to give you BBC type col¬
our rotation, and an odd
fill command which fills
unexpected parts of the
shape, added to the resi¬
dent language (Super-
BASIC). There are some
extra keyboard com¬
mands which allow you to
wait a specified time. This
ROM pack slots into the
cartridge port but because
it uses physically large
EPROMs rather than the

tiny masked ROMs, used
for the Spectrum games,
it looks untidy. It also
means that you cannot
use cartridges, not a ma¬
jor worry because by the
time cartridges are
available this should have
been fixed.

QL on test

The QL should be fast;
it uses a 68008 running
at 7.5 MHz and all the
machine code programs
I've seen have been very
fast, but SuperBASIC is
slow and loses out badly
to the BBC when running
standard benchtests.
David Karlin, the QL's
designer, said that this
was partly due to the
FOR . . ENDFOR (QL for
FOR. . .NEXT), loop not
being very fast, and that
this would be seen to. He
also pointed out that the
QL's speed is consistent,
so even the longest pro¬
grams do not slow down.
The basic editor is more
than a little crude, again
this will be fixed by the

end of the month but I will
be very surprised if it is
the full screen editor we
were promised at the
launch. The SuperBASIC
interpreter is so fussy
about spaces that this can
be very annoying. If you
enter the line:

190 PRUNT V$

the QL gives the error
message: Bad Name.

This is very nice; like
the Spectrum it will not
allow you to enter a line
containing syntax errors.
However it will not allow
you to edit this by just
changing the U to an I,
you have to retype the
whole line. If you do write
a program that contains
an error then you can edit
it with an EDIT line
number command. This
is like the old machines
harking back to the days
of the teletype terminal,
not what I would expect
from the latest in friendly,
superpowerful home
micros. It seems that
Sinclair Research are to
make full use of the clause

to a policy of on-going im¬
provement the manufac¬
turer reserves the right to
change the specification
and colour from that
stated' or words to that
effect. Well you can be
sure the colour will stay
the same but with weekly,
and maybe even daily
changes to the BASIC and
frequent changes to the
operating system it may
well be that in the short
term no two month's QLs
will be the same, as
machines are de-bugged
during production.

Software from
Psion

I have also seen the
Psion packages running,
these are a word-
processor (QL Quill), a
database manager (QL Ar¬
chive), a spreadsheet (QL
Abacus) and a graphics
program (QL Easel). After
beginning to see the QL as
just-another-micro these
programs really bucked up
my expectations. They
are on a par with, if not
better than, the best
business software
around. Quill is a very
good word processor,
with all the standard
features, but the screen
mimics the printed copy
as closely as possible.
Large documents are
hindered by the
microdrives but a 128K
RAM pack cannot be far
away, either from Sinclair
or an outside supplier.
Quill has some very nice
special features, like the
ability to number pages
automatically, with roman
numerals, and Quill can
show you the layout of a
1 60 column document by
representing each
character with a pixel
and each highlighted

character with two pixels.

Archive is very, very
powerful, it can either be
used as a simple database
(like Vu-File for the BBC or
Spectrum) or as a
database language. Like
ail the Psion packages it
has an extensive help
command to guide you
through the options. Psion
expect a lot of other com¬
panies to cash in on the
power of QL Archive in
the way that they have
done with DBase II for
machines like the Sirius
and IBM. In fact most of
the comparisons made
were between the Psion
package and similar pro¬
grams on computers
costing many times more
than the QL.

QL Abacus is a friend¬
ly spreadsheet. Instead of
referring to each cell with
a co-ordinate you can use
labels. This makes work¬
ing out what you are do¬
ing the prime concern,
and not how to work the
program. The ability to

handle text simply makes
the output much easier to
read. Psion intend selling
Abacus for the DEC VAX
as well as for various
other computers.

QL Easel is fun. Given
a dull set of figures Easel
can turn them into line,
bar or pie charts; it can
take or send data to any of
the other programs, apply
formula to your figures
and then dump the whole
lot onto a printer. Even
losses can look good.

Data can be moved
between all the Psion pro¬
grams using the import
and export commands, so
you could type a letter us¬
ing Quill and incorparate a
table of figures from
Abacus, sending it to the
relevant people, with
labels printed using Ar¬
chive. You could even in¬
clude a graph of the
figures from Easel.

I went to Sinclair and
Psion in the same week. I
left the former angry that
the machine was so late

and unfinished and a little
despondent that the
SuperBASIC was not so
super. I left the latter Ex¬
cited and once more it¬
ching to get my hands on
a QL. Psion — have
shown what can be done
with the QL and given the
right documentation there
should be some stupen¬
dous software for the
black box. If the C
language compiler which
is under development, is
as good as the other QL
software no-one will use
BASIC.

Overall I am still ex¬
cited about Sinclair's new
machine. It has great
possibilities and may be
the computer trend setter
it promised to be on that
long gone launch day.

Since writing this arti¬
cle, the author has taken
delivery of his Q.L. Any
changes to the opinions
expressed here will be
published next month.

£49

■00

INC

PARALLEL

PRINTER

INTERFACE

* 12 months guarantee

* Fully self-contained with connectors and

3 metre cable

* Plugs into Sinclair QL’s RS232C port and

* Drives any CENTRONICS compatible printer
eg Epson Seikosha Juki OKI NEC Shinwa

Star MCP-40 Roland etc etc

To order send name & address with cheque to
MIRACLE SYSTEMS Ltd
6 Armitage Way
Kings Hedges

CAMBRIDGE Sinclair and QL are tradenarks of
C B 4 2 U E Sinclair Reseach

HEARING IS BELIEVING

Tele So md

SPECTRUM BEEP BOOSTER

TELESOUND is ready built and
tested so that you can get the
full sound of your Spectrum
through any unmodified
television set, black and white
or colour. The unit is easy to
fit in minutes without any
previous experience as full
fitting instructions are
provided.

TELESOUND has been designed
using the very latest ultra
miniature components so it’s
size is an incredible 2xl.3x0.lcm.
and fits neatly inside the Spectrum.
Three easy push-on
connections are made to the
Spectrum. The connections
are clearly shown in a
diagram that comes with
full fitting instructions.

TELESOUND FEATURES

SOUND AND VISION TOGETHER FOR ADDED REALISM.

BEEP VOLUME CONTROLLABLE FROM A WHISPER TO A ROAR.

KEYBOARD CLICK CLEARLY HEARD TO ASSIST PROGRAM ENTRY.

PROGRAMS CAN BE HEARD WHEN BEING LOADED * NO SOLDERING OR CASE CUTTING REQUIRED
ADDITIONAL AMPUFIER NOT NECESSARY * SEPARATE POWER SUPPLY NOT REQUIRED
USES NO MEMORY SO WORKS WITH ALL PROGRAMS * COMPATIBLE WITH ALL OTHER ADD-ONS
INCLUDING MICRODRIVE

TELESOUND comes complete with easy to follow fitting
instructions and costs £9.95 inclusive of post, packing
etc. Please state your computer when ordering.

COMPUSOUND

BARQAYCARD

Overseas and Trade Enquiries
Welcome

DEPT: PCT, 32-33 LANGLEY CLOSE, REDDITCH, WORCS.,
898 OET. TELEPHONE (0527) 21429 (21439 Answerphone)

^TANCO
SOFTWARE

_j -

■y. 25 Corsewall Street

UL Coatbridge. ML5 IPX.

-60 GAMES-

ONLY £9.95
LIMITED PERIOD
ORLY.

SEND THIS ADD
WITH YOHR
ORDER & GET A *7^
PREE GAME,

inc:laii“

SPECTRUM

TI99/4A SOFTWARE

3 great games for the unexpanded T199/4A

PILOT £5.95

Flight simulation game for one player. Graphics display of landing
strip and terrain map, plus updated instrument panel. Options for
take-off, landing or in flight. Full instructions included. Graphics
and sound.

Tl TREK £5.95

Defeat the Klingon invasion fleet. Features include 5 skill levels,
graphics quadrant display, galaxy map, phasors, photon
torpedoes, long range scans, damage reports, shield control'
impulse and warp drive. Eight by eight galaxy. Full instructions
included. Graphics and sound.

BOMBER £4.95

Your plane is faced with a desperate fuel shortage. You must
bomb away the skyscrapers below to form a runway before you
crash! Graphics and sound.

TEXAS PROGRAM BOOK £5.95

35 programs for the unexpanded TI99/4A, including 3-D Maze,

Lunar Lander, Caterpillar, Horse Race, Invader, Morse Code and

much more.

Send cheque or P.O. or telephone with Access/Visafor immediate
despatch. Please add 50p p&p to orders under £7. Orders over £7
post free.

APEX SOFTWARE

Swiss Cottage, Hastings Road,
St. Leonards-on-Sea,

E. Sussex TN38 8EA
TEL: Hastings (0424) 53283

40

Personal Computing Today July 1984

Try pulling a
stunt like this on
your Spectrum

Leap on a moving train... jump from carriage
to carriage... duck under fast-approaching
bridges.

But before you do anything, make sure it's
with Sinclair's new action-packed game -
'Stop the Express'.

That way, you can try dramatic feats like
Buster Keaton's - without risking your neck!

'Stop the Express' is one of five exciting new
games from Sincfair. Its graphics are superbly fast
and sharp.The action is non-stop. And the challenge
is a very tough one.

On top of a racing express, you're chased by
knife-throwing bandits. And inside the express,
there's even more trouble.

Will you ever get to the front and halt the
train? Or will you be well and truly bumped off?

Sinclair Research Ltd, Camberley (0276) 685311.

(™) Sinclair, ZX and ZX Spectrum are trade marks of
Sinclair Research Ltd.

All five new Sinclair titles -
Stop the Express, Bubble Buster,
Zipper Flipper, Eric and the Floaters,
and Driller Tanks - are for a 48K
Spectrum. You'll find them in the
shops - today.

At only £5.95 each, they're
destined to be big stars on the small-
screen!

Selected Sinclair software lines are available from
W.H. Smith computer stores, larger branches
of Boots, John Menzies, Greens and most other
software stockists nationwide.

sinczlaii -

Still of Buster Keaton from The General © Raymond Rohauer 1984

1 KEEP TRACK OF
• THE GOLF CLUB
ACCOUNTS.

The GEC Dragon RMS
program will record all the
details, and prepare the
accounts beautifully typed
at the end of the year
(Or any other time.)

2 ACHIEVE INSTANT
• FINANCIAL STATUS.
Whetheryou're in business
or not, the Dragon will give
you an accurate picture of
your assets (or liabilities)
almost instantly

5 COST OUT JOBS.

• Many small
businesses are using the'
GEC Dragon to simplify
and speed up their
complete job-costing
operations — and saving
a fortune in the process.

6 INTEGRATE YOUR
• POLYNOMIALS.
GEC Dragons UNIX-like
software to the rescue
again. If you can handle
the maths, the GEC
Dragon will take care of all
the calculations.

8 TURN YOUR
• EXPENSES FROM
FICTION INTO FACT
Keep a day-by-day account
of your business expenses
and credit card transactions
— with instant printout at
anytime.

"What else would I do

with aGEC Dragon 64?”

3 MAKE SURE THE
*CASH FLOWS IN.
AS WELL AS OUT
With the Sales and
Purchase program soon to
be available, you'll have
complete control over your
company's cash flow

4 LEARN TO
• PROGRAM IN
PASCAL, C, OR BASIC.
Although it's childsplay to
use, the GEC Dragon is
certainly not limited to
games. In fact it has as
much brain power as
some computers that
cost thousands.

*7 SEND A SHIRTY
/•LETTERTO THE
BANK MANAGER FOR
A CHANGE.

You should enjoy this.

The Dragon is a big ally
when it comes to personal
finance. It'll keep you
permanently one step
ahead of yourbank
statements.

y

liiiiY,,.. ■.,vi, , :il!lill

9 | DESIGN A BRIDGE.

• GEC Dragon's UNIX-
like software (based on
programs which were
specifically designed for
universities) will help you
perform stress analysis,
quantity surveying and
many more complex
functions.

in FIND A CURE
1U« FOR AMNESIA.

By keeping a personal diary
the GEC Dragon can also
help you avoid life's bigger
crises. (Like reminding you
of your anniversary before
your wife does.)

n FLY TO THE
• MOON.

While you're taking it easy
with all the spare time your
Dragon has created, there
are literally hundreds of
space adventures and other
games to pass the time.

lO COMPOSEA
1 v3»MOONLIGHT
SONATA-ANY TIME
OF DAY

With no less than five
octaves, the GEC Dragon is
musically very talented.

It's no dumb
computer
either—you
can even get
it to talk
to you.

\

M WRITE YOUR
bLIFE STORY
You'll get around 30,000
words of gripping adventure
or stunning success on every
GEC Dragon 64 floppy disk.

1 O CURE THE
1Z#IMPEDIMENTIN
YOUR REACH.

i r TEACH THE KIDS.

From over thirty
educational programs, you
can teach your children to
read and write from a very
early age.

There are lots more ways
the GEC Dragon 64 can
make life simpler
You can buy the GEC
Dragon computer and a wide
range of accessories and
software from the better
computershops, majorstores
and GEC dealers.

Its proof that, now GEC and
Dragon have got together
we're really going to start
turning it on for the small
business and serious
computer user
And to whet your appetite
still further we've produced a
12-page colour brochure that
tells you how to get the most
out of a GEC Dragon 64.

It's called Your Passport to
Professional Software.'

It's yours free in exchange
for the coupon below

By linking your Dragon to
Prestel and the telephone,
you'll have immediate
access to the very latest
information on travel and

exchange rates. You can
even book up for plays and
the theatre.

DRAGON

COMPUTERS

rTo: GEC Dragon Customer Services, Thpsgate House, Gladstone Drive,
| Staple Hill, Bristol BS16 4RU.

I Please send me a copy of'Your Passport to Professional Software.'

Name

Address

Postcode

Or if you would like information on the rest of our
products - please tick the appropriate box.

□ Dragon 32 □ Dragon 64 □ Dragon Accessories

PCT2

Bombshell

Type in this ultra fast and exciting arcade
game for the Spectrum and have an_

explosive time! By Matthew Taylor.

Bombshell is an abstract
arcade game for the 1 6 or
48K Spectrum. The pro¬
gram consists of two
parts: the first contains
full instructions, gener¬
ates the user defined
graphics and allows the
user to define his own
control keys. The second
is the game itself. Two
programs are used to
allow the game to fit into
16K.

You are Fred, who
must try to defuse a bomb
before time runs out. You
must avoid the deadly
skulls, especially the
yellow one which will
chase you. You get a
bonus of 250 points for
catching a flag. As you
walk around the grid, you
leave a trail of blank
squares behind you. You
cannot step on these
squares again, so alter¬
natively you can slide the
row along to avoid leaving
a trail.

When (if) you have
diffused five bombs you
are given the chance to
score a bonus: hit any key
when Fred is over the flag.
You now have to diffuse
another five bombs, only
this time it will be harder.
If you reach 20000 points
you will be awarded an
extra life.

How to type it in

The first program
should be typed in and
saved under the name

"BOMBSHELL" LINE 5.
The second should be
saved under the name
"BOMBSHELL2"LINE1 0.

The program uses
many colour control
codes (see Sinclair
manual, page 114 —

chapter 16) embedded ip
the listing. These are
essential to the operation
of the program and it is
imperative that they are
typed in correctly or the
program will not function
correctly. Below is an ex¬
planation of their
whereabouts in the
listing:

Both the paper and
the ink codes should be
put before each pair of
characters in the string as
mentioned above even if it
seems as though you are
repeating yourself. Forex-
ample Line 1300 you
must enter both the INK
and PAPER codes
although this seems un¬
necessary. Also in lines
8230 and 8240 the
codes should be entered
before each pair of
characters. If you have
never used these codes
before, it might be an idea
to practise before you

Program one

LINE

INK

PAPER

CHARACTER

1010

magenta

blue

Fred

red

black

Number (23)

yellow

black

TNT

cyan

black

1 st skull

yellow

black

2nd skull -

Program two

LINE

INK

PAPER

CHARACTER

1105

yellow

blue

Blocks

1112

yellow

black

Skull

1300

black

black

Spaces

1368

magenta

black

Fred

6034,

6035,

black

black

Spaces

6530

7520,

cyan

black

Skull

7350

7570

red

black

Flag

7580

yellow

black

Pole

7610

black

black

Spaces

7620

yellow

black

TNT

7640,

magenta

black

Fred

7650

8230,

yellow

blue

Blocks

8240

EACH INDIVIDUAL

BLOCK (see below)

-!

type in the program. Try
and form a string with
several different colours
inside it.

A brief explanation of
the program's operation
might help to clarify these
codes: The display is
stored in the string array
a$(20,96). This enables it
to be scrolled in BASIC.
Each row of 96 is divided

into 16 sections of 6
characters. The first four
in each section hold the
ink and paper codes, the
fifth and sixth the actual
graphics to which the col¬
our codes apply.

The final two bytes
must be preceeded by the
colour codes, otherwise
the program will not be
able to address the strings

properly. Thus each of the
strings in the program that
are mentioned in the list
above (for program two)
should contain six
characters — it seems
that there are only two in
the listing because the
codes are invisable. The
strings in lines 8230 and
8240 should contain 96
characters.

If lines which contain
strings with both paper
and ink black (eg. line
1 300) it is a good idea to
change to different col¬
ours after the string, so
you can read the rest of
the program. However,
you must put these extra
codes outside the quotes
so the string is the right
length.

hints on conversion

For a successful conversion, without extensive
rewriting, it is essential that there is some way of
embedding colour control codes inside strings on
your micro. They ought really to take up two bytes
for each code or again extensive rewriting will have
to be done (you will have to change all the com¬
plicated expressions inside the a$ brackets.)

The Specrum's screen is 22 rows of 32 col¬
umns. In PRINT AT and ATTR statements the first
number is the row, the second the column (ie. PRINT
AT row, column;). The VAL function is used fre¬
quently to save memory so the program could fit into
1 6K. This also explains the lack of potentially helpful
REM statements. In this form the programs occupy
about 1 0-1 1 K together.

Below is a list of some of the Spectrum's
peculiarities used in this program.

i) CLEAR 32593 — clears six bytes of

memory above
RAMTOP in which to
store the codes of the
user defined keys.

ii) STRINGS — A string on the

Spectrum is like a one
dimensional array:
a $ (1) is the first
character of a$
a$(3 to 6) are the 2nd
to 6th characters.
a$(20,96) is an array
of 20 strings each
length 96 characters.

iii)

PRINT'

— Miss a line, as in
Atom/BBC BASIC.

iv)

INPUT LINE

— Just ignore the
'LINE'

v)

CODE a$

— Character code of
a$

vi)

USR"a"

— This gives the
address of the first
user defined grapic in
RAM.

vii)

LOGIC

— On the Spectrum
true is 1, false is 0.
eg. PRINT 1 = 1 gives
1 (-ve 1 on some
machines).

PRINT 1 =2 gives 0

viii)

ATTR(y,x)

— This gives the
colour of the screen

position y,x — a
number between 0
and 255: = INK +

8 * PAPER +

64 * BRIGHT (bright
on or off)

CODE COLOUR
0 Black

1 Blue

2 Red

3 Magenta

4 Green

5 Cyan

6 Yellow

7 White

how it runs

Program One: Bombshell

40,80

Main loop

1101-1112

Move yellow skull

Lines

1300-1369

Move Fred, check for collisions

1

Loads Bombshell 2

1370-1410

Scroll screen

5-70

Main Loop

3000-3120

Tunes

80-240

User defined control keys

4000-4350

'Bonus stage'

1000-1 100

Instructions

5010-5090

End of game

9000-9990

Generate user defined graphics

6000-6040

Loss of Life

Program Two: Bombsheil2

6500-6550

6800,6810

'In between screens' routine.
'Time up' routine

Lines

7000-7990

Generate screen

Get correct control key codes

8000-8260

Set variables

37,38

• i n rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

! BombsheHfj'f ff SSSSifl

i“r

Graphics

A Box (top left)

B Box (top right)

C Box (bottom left)

D Box (bottom right)

E Skull (top left)

F Skull (top right)

G Skull (bottom left)

H Skull (bottom right)

I Grave (top left)

J Grave (top right)

K Grave (bottom left)

L Grave (bottom right)
M Fred (top right)

N Fred (top right)

0 Fred (bottom right)

P Fred (bottom right)

Q Flag (top right)

R Flag (top tight)

S Flag (bottom right)

T TNT (bottom left)

U TNT (bottom right)

User Defined Graphics
have been printed as up¬
per case letters in the
listing.

z zero
o one *
s six I

To save
memory

skill

et

hs

h$

x,y

xd,yd

xt,yt

i , i i~rr

" "COirrrrrrr
rrrrrrr i~r

Skill level
Spare lives
Flag (set to
zero when ex¬
tra life has
been award-
e d )

High score
Name of top
scorer
Position of
Fred

Fred's new
direction
Position of
bomb

xs,ys

sk

Position of
yellow skull
Flag so skull
moves slower
than Fred
a$ (20,96) Stores screen
t Time left

g Number of

screen in bet¬
ween each
Bonus Stage
k$ (6) Codes of con¬

trol keys (can
be 'Normal' or
'User
defined')

i i

i mm i

I I
“l

r*

program fisting

S C O RE!: 0013 3 0 L. X U E 3 : X HIGH © 3 © © © ©

□□□□ □□ '□□□□□□
□□□□□ □□□□ M3&UO
□ □□□ □’IDO □□□□□
U □□ □□□□ □□

□□ □ □^□□□□□□□D

□□□□ □□ □#□□□
*□&□□*□□□□ □□
□□□□ □□□ "1 &□□□□□
□□□□ □□□□*□□
□□□□□□*□ UUUOUAU

LuRE: ©©©©©© L. X U E 3 : a HIGH © 3 © © © ©
RBSRRRR sit. S CORE : © © © © © F JRb< n 'BB A 'BBx x ~RRR

3 C ORE: © © © 5 3 © L. X U E 3 : 1 HIGH © 3 © © © ©

□□□ □□□□□□□£]
□□□ nnn

□□□ □□□□□□ □□□□
□□□ im m * □□□ □

□□□ □□□□□LJffi □□□U

mnmnnnnnnnn

□□DCLLM□□□□□□ □
□□□* 0 1nnr mnnnnn
□#□□□□□□□□& nn
***□□□□□□□□□□□□□

2 REM BOMBSHELL version 2.1

3 REM Matthew Taylor 1984

10 RANDOMIZE s LET z=0: LET o=ls LET s=6: LET hs=VAL "3000
0": LET h$="MATTHEW
TAYLOR"

30 SO SUB VAL "8000"

35 INPUT "Skill level (1-9) ?";skill

36 IF skillCo OR ski11>9 THEN GO TO VAL "35"

37 INPUT "(U)ser defined keys or (N)ormal ?"; LINE b$

38 IF b*="u" OR b$="U" THEN FOR i=l TO 6: LET k*(i)=CHR*
(PEEK (325<?3-Fl ) ) : NE

XT i

40 GO SUB VAL "7000": GO SUB VAL "1000" s GO SUB VAL "4000"
: GO SUB VAL "8200"

80 GO TO VAL "40"

1010 FOR g=o TO VAL "5"

1100 LET xd=z: LET yd=z : LET t=t-o: IF t=z THEN GO TO VAL "
6800"

1101 IF sk<2 THEN GO TO 1111

1105 PRINT AT xs,ys;"AB";AT xs+o,ys;"CD": LET a$(xs-o,ys*3+o
TO ys*3+s)="AB": LE

T a$(xs,ys*3+o TO ys*3+s)="CD"

1106 LET xs=xs+2*((x>xs)-(x<xs)): LET ys=ys+2*((y>ys)-(y<ys)

1107 IF xs=xt AND ys=yt THEN LET xs=xs+2: IF xs=22 THEN LE

T xs=2

1109 IF x=xs AND y=ys THEN GO TO VAL "6000"

1110 LET sk=z

1111 LET sk=sk+o

1112 PRINT AT xs,ys; INK sj"EF";AT xs+o,ys;"GH"

1120 PRINT AT xt,yt; INK 2; BRIGHT o;t;: IF t<10 THEN PRINT

1130 IF sc>=20000 THEN LET l=l+el: LET el=z

1140 IF INKEY$="" THEN PAUSE VAL "20": GO TO VAL "1100"

1150 IF INKEY$=k$(5) OR INKEY$=k$(6> THEN GO TO 1370

1300 LET a$(x-o,y*3+o TO y*3+s)=" ": LET a*(x,y*3+o TO y*3+

s) = " "

1320 LET xd=2*((INKEY*=k^(2)) — (INKEY$=k$(1)))

1325 LET yd=2*( (INKEY*=kJt (4) ) - (INKEY^=k$ (3) ) )

1326 PRINT AT x,y; INK z;" ";AT x+o,y;" "

1327 BEEP .01,50

1328 LEjT x=x+xd: LET y=y+yd
1330 IF x=22 THEN LET x=2
1340 IF x=z THEN LET x=20
1350 IF y=32 THEN LET y=z
1355 IF y=—2 THEN LET y=30

1359 IF ATTR (x,y>=6 THEN GO TO VAL "6000"

1360 IF ATTR (x,y)=2 THEN LET sc=sc+VAL "250": PRINT AT z,(
12-LEN (STR^ sc)); I

— .—— i — i .m . mr.n,

NK 4;sc

1361 IF ATTR (x,y)=5 THEN GO TO VAL "6000"

1362 IF ATTR (x,y)=66 THEN GO TO VAL "6500"

1363 IF ATTR (x,y)=z THEN LET x=x-xd: LET y=y-yd

1364 IF x=22 THEN LET x=2

1365 IF x=z THEN LET x=20

1366 IF y=32 THEN LET y=z

1367 IF y=—2 THEN LET y=30

1368 LET a$(x-o,y*3+o TO y*3+s)="MN": LET a*(x,y*3+o TO y*3+
s)= "QP"

1369 GO TO 1400

1370 IF INKEY$=k*(5) THEN LET t*=a$(x-o,o TO s) : LET a$(x-o
,o TO 90)=a*(x-o,7 T

O 96): LET a*(x-o,91 TO 96)=t$: LET t$=a$(x,o TO s): LET a$(
x,o TO 90)=a$(x,7 TO

96): LET a$(x,91 TO 96)=t$: LET y=y-2: IF x=xt THEN LET yt
=yt-2

1380 IF INKEY*=k$(6) THEN LET t$=a$(x-o,91 TO 96): LET a$(x
—o,7 TO 96)=a$(x-o,o

TO 90): LET a$(x-o,o TO s)=t$: LET t$=a*(x,91 TO 96): LET a
*<x,7 TO 96)=a$(x,o

TO 90): LET a$(x,o TO s)=t$: LET y=y+2: IF x=xt THEN LET yt
=yt+2

1381 IF yt=32 THEN LET yt=z

1382 IF yt=—2 THEN LET yt=30

1383 IF y=32 THEN LET y=z

1384 IF y=—2 THEN LET y=30

140BT PRINT AT x,z;a$(x-o);AT x+o,z;a$(x)

1410 GO TO 1100

3010 FOR i=VAL "30" TO VAL "40": BEEP VAL ". 1", i: NEXT i: RE
TURN

3030 BEEP VAL ".3",VAL "20": BEEP VAL ".15",VAL "20": BEEP V
AL ".15",VAL "22": B

EEP VAL ".3",VAL "24": BEEP VAL ".3",VAL "20": BEEP VAL ".15
",VAL "27": BEEP VAL

".15",VAL "29": BEEP VAL ".15",VAL "27": BEEP VAL ".15",VAL
"29": BEEP VAL ".6"

,VAL "27": RETURN

3060 BEEP VAL ".3",VAL "5": BEEP VAL ".3'',VAL "5": BEEP VAL
".15",VAL "5": BEEP

VAL ".3",VAL "5": BEEP VAL ".3",VAL "8": BEEP VAL ".15",VAL
"7": BEEP VAL ".3",V

AL "7": BEEP VAL ".25",VAL "5": BEEP VAL ".25",VAL "5": BEEP
VAL ".3",VAL "4": B
EEP VAL ".6",VAL "5": RETURN

3090 BEEP VAL ".5",VAL "9": BEEP VAL "1",VAL "12": BEEP VAL
“.5",VAL "11": BEEP

VAL "1",VAL "9": BEEP VAL ".5",VAL "9": BEEP VAL ".5",VAL "7
": BEEP VAL "1",VAL

"2": BEEP VAL ".25",VAL "4": BEEP VAL ".25",VAL "5”: BEEP VA
L "1",VAL "4": RETUR
N

3120 BEEP VAL ".3",VAL "12": BEEP VAL ".07",VAL "12": BEEP V
AL ".07",VAL "14": B

EEP VAL ".07";VAL "16": BEEP VAL ".07",VAL "17": BEEP VAL ".
15",VAL "19": BEEP V

AL ".15",VAL "19": BEEP VAL ".15",VAL "19": BEEP VAL ".15",V
AL "16": RETURN

4020 CLS : PRINT AT 20,z; INK 5;"EFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFE

FEFEFGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG

HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGH"

4030 LET p=INT <RND*VAL "15")*VAL "2"

4040 PRINT AT VAL "20",p; INK VAL "2";"QR";AT VAL "21",p; IN
K s;" S"

4050 FOR x=z TO VAL "18" STEP VAL "2": FOR y=z TO VAL "30" S
TEP VAL "2"

4060 PRINT AT x,y; INK VAL "3";"MN";AT x+z,y;"OP"

4065 IF INKEY$<>"" THEN GO TO VAL "4200"

4070 PRINT AT x,y;" "; AT x+o,y;"

4080 NEXT y: NEXT x

4090 PRINT AT VAL "20",VAL "30"; INK VAL "3";"MN";AT VAL "21
",VAL "30";"OP"

4100 GO TO VAL "4300"

4200 PRINT AT x,y;" ";AT x+o,y; "

4210 FOR a=x+VAL "2" TO VAL "18" STEP VAL "2"

4220 PRINT AT a,y; INK VAL "3";"MN";AT a+o,y;"OP"

4230 PAUSE VAL "10"

4240 PRINT AT a,y;" ";AT a+o,y; "

4250 NEXT a

4260 PRINT AT a,y; INK VAL "3";"MN";AT a+o,y;"OP"

4300 IF y=p THEN PRINT AT VAL " 11" ,z; INK VAL "2"; BRIGHT o
;"BONUS ";(ski11*VAL

"50");" X ";(VAL "10"-x/VAL "2");" = ";(<VAL "10"-x/AL "2")
*skill*VAL "50"): LE

T sc=sc+((VAL "10"—x/VAL "2">*VAL "50"*ski11): GO SUB VAL "3
000 "

4310 IF p<>y THEN PRINT AT VAL "11" ,z; INK VAL "2"; BRIGHT
o;"NO BONUS !": BEEP
VAL "2",VAL "-40"

4320 FOR i=o TO VAL "200": NEXT i

4340 IF ski 11<VAL "9" THEN LET ski 11=ski11+o

4350 RETURN

5010 GO SUB VAL "3080": CLS

5020 PRINT AT o,z; PAPER o; INK s; FLASH o; BRIGHT o;"

GAME OVER

5030 IF hs<sc THEN PRINT AT VAL "3",z; INK VAL "2"; BRIGHT
a;"CONGRATULATIONS!A

NEW HIGH SCORE": GO SUB VAL "3000": LET hs=sc: INPUT "Type
in your name "; LINE
h$

5040 PRINT * INK s; BRIGHT o;"SCORE:";sc

5050 PRINT ' INK VAL "5"; BRIGHT o;"HIGH SCORE:";hs: PRINT "
by ";h$

5090 GO TO VAL "30"

6010 FOR i=o TO VAL "7": FOR j=o TO VAL "7": PRINT AT x,y; I
NK j;"MN";AT x+o,y;"

OP": NEXT j: NEXT i

6020 PRINT AT x,y; INK 7;"IJ";AT x+o,y;"KL"

6030 IF l>o THEN GO SUB VAL "3050"

6034 LET a$<x-o,y*3+o TO y*3+s)=" ": LET a$(x,y*3+o TO y*3+

s) = " "

6035 LET a*<xt-o,yt*3+o TO yt*3+s)=" ": LET a$(xt,yt*3+o TO

yt*3+s)=" "

6036 LET I=1—o: IF l=z THEN GO TO VAL "5000"

6040 GO SUB VAL "7600": GO TO VAL "1100"

6510 CLS : PRINT AT VAL "9",z; INK VAL "2"; BRIGHT o;"TIME L
EFT :";t;AT VAL "11"

_,z;"BONUS = "; (ski11*VAL "10");" X ";t;" = " ; (ski 11*VAL “10"
*t)

6515 GO SUB VAL "3110"

6516 FOR i=o TO VAL "100": NEXT i
6520 LET sc=sc+skill*t*VAL "10"

6530 LET a*<xt—o,yt*3+o TO yt*3+s)=" ": LET a$(xt,yt*3+o TO

yt*3+s)=" "

6540 IF gCVAL "5" THEN GO SUB VAL "7600"

6550 NEXT g: RETURN

6800 PRINT AT o,z; FLASH o; BRIGHT o; INK s; PAPER o;"

TIME UP!

6810 GO TO VAL "6010"

7010 BORDER z: INK VAL "7": PAPER z: CLS

7505 PRINT AT o,z; PAPER o; INK s; BRIGHT o; FLASH o;"

LEVEL ";skill;

7506 GO SUB VAL "3020"

7507 FOR i=o TO (ski.ll*VAL "9")

7510 LET x=^MT <RND*10+o)*2: LET y=INT (RND*15)*2
7520 LET a$<x—o,y*3+o TO y*3+s)="EF"

7530 LET a$(x,y*3+o TO y*3+s)="GH"

7540 NEXT i

7550 FOR i=o TO 4+skilL

7560 LET x=INT (RND*10+o)*2: LET y=INT <RND*15)*2
7570 LET a$(x-o,y*3+o TO y*3+s)="QR"

7580 LET a$(x,y*3+o TO y*3+s)=" S"

7590 NEXT i

7600 LET xt=INT (RND*10+o) # 2 : LET yt=INT (RND*15>*2
7610 LET a*<xt—o,yt*3+o TO yt*3+s>=" "

7620 LET a$<xt,yt*3+o TO yt*3+s)="TU"

7630 LET x=INT (RND*10+a)*2: LET y=INT (RND*15)*2
7635 IF x=xt AND y=yt THEN GO TO 7630
7640 LET a$(x-o,y*3+o TO y*3+s)="MN"

7650 LET a$(x,y*3+o TO y*3+s)="0P"

7660 LET xs=INT <RND*10+o)*2: LET ys=INT (RND*15)*2
7670 IF (xs>x—2 AND xs<x+2) OR (ys>y-2 AND ys<y+2) OR (xs>xt
-2 AND xs<xt+2) THEN
GO TO 7660

7700 CLS : PRINT AT z,z; INK 4; BRIGHT o;"SCORE:000000 LIVES
:0 HIGH 000000"

7705 PRINT AT z,12-LEN (STR$ sc); INK 4; BRIGHT a;sc;AT z,19
;1;AT z,32-LEN (STR*
hs); INK 4;hs

7710 FOR i=o TO 20: PRINTAT i+o,z;a$(i): NEXT l

7720 LET t=(10-skill)*2+23

7730 PRINT AT xt,yt; BRIGHT o; INK 2;t

7740 PRINT AT xs,ys; INK s;"EF";AT xs+o,ys;"GH"

7990 RETURN

8010 LET sk=z: LET sc=z: LET 1=VAL "3": LET el=o: DIM k*(6):
LET k^(o)="7": LET

k^(VAL "2")="6": LET k^(VAL "3")="5": LET k$(VAL "4")="8": L
ET k$(VAL "5")="4":

LET k$<s)="9"

8210 DIM a$(VAL "20",VAL "96")

8220 FOR i=o TO VAL "19" STEP VAL "2"

8230 LET a$(i)="ABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABAB"

8240 LET a^(i+1)="CDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCD"

8250 NEXT i
8260 RETURN

DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME
R&R Software Ltd.

5 Russell Street, Gloucester GL1 1NE.
Tel (0452) 502819

CALLING ALL PROGRAMMERS.

WANTED New, Quality Software.

Send us your latest Program
forevaluation - NOW.

AVAILABLE FROM LEADING DEALERS NATIONWIDE

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri
i" *-ITrrrrri-rri-rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 1

I I6QC I I I I I I I I I I I I

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

CTRL FIND

Program 1: demonstration of colour commands

j print"3"

$ PRINT"iTHIS LINE IS BLRCK"
j PR I NT "WH IS LINE IS RED "
l PR I NT 11 kTH IS LINE IS CYRN"

» PRINT"^THIS LINE IS PURPLE"

J PRINT'STHIS LINE IS BLUE”

I* PRINT"OTHIS LINE IS YELLOW"
i PR I NT" rSTH IS mis iilUiLSrklCO^UiliJRfiEB

VIC 20 for Beginners

For newcomers to this machine we explain
how to get to grips with its capabilities.

By Bob Wallace.

The purpose of this series
of articles is to give the
newcomer to the VIC 20 a
chance to make easy pro¬
gress into the world of the
micro.

How many times have
you reached for your copy
of PCT, to find a listing
that sounds really good?
Yes, I bet its quite a
number of times. How
many times have you
spent two hours or more
typing in the listing, only
to find that the computer
crashes or produces the
most unusual display that
you have ever seen
followed by that all too
familiar screen prompt
'SYNTAX ERROR IN 100'
etc? The problems can be
enough to put off the
newcomer from home
computing for life (if not
longer!)

The aim of these ar¬
ticles it to allay all your
fears about the mythical
mysteries of the VIC 20,
and enable you to become
both happy and proficient
at using the machine. OK,
so lets get down to some
serious business.

Control codes

Probably the biggest
cause of all problems is
the funny symbols or
characters that appear in
the listing since they are
not easily found on the
keyboard! Well what do
you need to know in order
to produce these wierd
and wonderful

characters?? The answer
is in fact found on the

keyboard. Probably the
commonest occurrence of
these characters is in the
more than versatile PRINT
statement, which is usual¬
ly followed by one of the
above named oddities, eg.
10 PRINT "[THIS LINE
WILL BE PRINTED IN
GREEN"

You may be confused
by the funny looking ar¬
row just after the opening
speech marks. This
character tells the com¬
puter to print in GREEN on
the screen, so whatever
you write as text follow¬
ing the arrow will appear
in green on the screen of
your TV. This arrow is
called a CONTROL CODE,
and is one of several

which tell the VIC to print
in different colours. They
are very easy to obtain
from the VIC keyboard by
using Table 1.

It should be noted that
the control codes will only
appear as the character or
symbol when placed in
speech marks. To get the
desired code, simply type
in the line number follow¬
ed by PRINT, open speech
marks, then hold down
the CTRL key and whilst
this is held down, hit the
key which is labelled with
the colour you want.
Finally close speech
marks and hit RETURN.
Program 1 illustrates the
use of the colour control
codes.

Table 1 Control codes for print commands

“ ■ •• IS CTRL AND BLK

♦* j

* ••

IS CTRL AND WHT

*» n

a *■

IS CTRL AND. RED

•• i

h.

IS CTRL AND CVN

“i

i '*

IS CTRL AND PUR

Small business can now
stop going by tbe book.

For under £1,000 a small business can now
equip itself with a BBC Microcomputer, a disc drive,
a word processor and printer.

(All tax deductible by the way.)

Once you’ve parted with that money, you’ll
find that business has never been brisker.

Because now, there’s a new series of floppy
disc software specially for the smaller business.

It has been developed by Acornsoft, the
software division of Acorn Computers who are
the manufacturers of the BBC Micro.

For only £24.95, each disc can store volumes
of vital bookwork which can be updated and
amended in a fraction of the conventional time.

is a disc to cover most aspects of
and book-keeping.

^nvekit,w

The Invoicin g packa ge.

This program stores details of products, VAT
numbers and, of course, the names and addresses
of your customers. As orders
come in, you simply record
them. Then, when it’s time
to invoice, you just press a
few keys and each invoice
or credit note is printed
automatically in seconds.

Allowing for variable terms of trading, the
system calculates and prints discounts. And it
should help to improve your cash flow dramatically.

The Order Processing packa ge.

With this program,
you can confirm your
customers’ orders, prepare
and print despatch notes
and make fast analyses of
individual orders or
of all the orders
stored on disc.

The Accounts Receivable packa ge.
Now, it couldn’t be easier to keep
your customer accounts under control.

In an instant, you can analyse
debtors, produce
statements, keep
a check on any
t limit and
VAT out¬
put automatically.

Using this package

in conjunction with the invoicing package,
you can also keep tabs on payments received
against payments outstanding.

The Accounts Payable
packa ge.

e will keep
fully up-to-date
on how much you
owe and who to. In
addition, it calculates

input VAT and, used with the Accounts Receivable
package, produces instant VAT returns.

It also highlights settlement discounts,
produces remittance advices and provides an
immediate analysis of all creditors.

The Stock Control packa ge.

Touch a few keys and you have instant access
to stock status and auto¬
matic analysis by quantity
and value.

Consequently, it’s easy
for you to maintain correct
stocking levels, having an
early warning of out-of-

—>

■STOCK-

CONTROL

in¬

stock situations or the likelihood of over-stocking.

rrrrrr

Average value of the business they do with you, or
whether they are good or bad payers.

Then, when you are doing a mailing, you
simply choose the group or groups of customers
you want.

At £24.95 each , these packa ges
could be priceless.

Each package comes with clear instructions
on how to get the program running so that you
can devote much more of your time to more
profitable activities.

If you’re a credit card holder,you can order any
or all of the packages by ringing: 01-200 0200
anytime. Or 0933 79300 during office hours.

(By ringing the same number, you can get the
address of your nearest stockist, or full
details of the BBC Microcomputer
system if you don’t already have one.)
Alternatively, you can order
the packages by sending the order
form below to: Acornsoft,
c/o Vector Marketing, Denington
I Estate,Wellingborough,Northants

■ NN8 2RL. Please allow 28 days

■ for delivery.

H ® Credit card holders,

phone 01-200 0200, anytime.
Or 0933 79300, during office
hours.

The Purchasin g packa ge.

All your suppliers’ names and addresses go
onto the disc. Then they can be retrieved instantly
for preparing and printing
orders.

All order data can be
recalled in seconds, allow¬
ing you to check on orders,
and suppliers’ invoices and
to record all deliveries.

The Mailin g packa ge.

Instead of the shotgun method of sending
mailshots, this package enables you to refine each
mailing down to the customers who are most likely
to respond.

It gives you a rapidly
accessible mailing file of
your customers, according
to any criterion you choose.

Size of company, for inst¬
ance, or type of business.

r T : : Acornsoft, c/o Vector Marketing, Denington Estate,
Wellingborough, Northants NN8 2RL.

Please send me the following business software
packages at £24.95 each.

(Code

Acornsoft

PROGRAM OUANTITY

Invoicing

TOTAL use only.)

SNB 08

Order Processing

SNB12

Accounts Receivable

SNB 10

Accounts Payable

SNB 13

Stock Control

SNB 11

Purchasing

SNB 14

Mailing

SNB 09

TOTAL

I enclose PO/cheque payable to Acornsoft Ltd. Or charge my
credit card.

Card Number_

Amex/Diners/Visa/Access (Delete)

Please send me details of the BBC Microcomputer System □
Name_

Address_

_Postcode_

Signature.

PT7

Registered No. 1524763

VAT No. 215 8123 85

4C0RNS6FT

m

_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

f,_.u • i_i i »jjjjj:rrrrrrrrrrrrrr.-i

— — — — m i • • i i i • i

i ii i II111'irrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

1

4

Oric Options

David Ellis concludes his examination of the
Oric's screen display facilities and enters
the realms of sound. Read this fascinating
article and liven up your programs.

number of scrolling lines
and their position can be
chosen at will, thus freez¬
ing the remaining parts of
the screen for displays or
prompts etc. For example,
to scroll the middle 10
lines of the screen enter
the following program:

10 CLS

20 DOKE 621,48320 :

POKE 623,10
30 PRINT

40 FOR X = 1 TO 500 :

PRINT X;: NEXT X
50 GET K$

60 DOKE 621,48000 :
POKE 623,27

Line 20 sets the start
of the screen 9 lines
down, with 10 scrolling
lines. A 'dummy' PRINT
statement is used in line
30 which will start the
printing at the correct
place. Line 40 will show

how just the middle 10
lines of the screen are us¬
ed to print out the X
values. Press any key
when the printing is
finished and this will reset
the values to normal. Be
careful not to overflow
the start and end of
screen display as unusual
results may occur. If you
change the number of
lines in line 20 to 27 you
will see what I mean!

Screen foolery

Once you have set a
scrolling area such as this,
the 'frozen' parts of the
screen can only be printed
to by PLOT and POKE.
One very exciting pro¬
spect is that it is now
possible to set up the
HIRES screen and fool the
computer into thinking
that it is using the TEXT

I stated in a previous arti¬
cle (PCT, May 1984) that
POKEing was the only
way to send characters
and attributes to the top
line of the screen 48000-
48039. There is actually
quite a useful way of get¬
ting around this problem.
The start of the screen
location (48000) is held
in memory locations 621
and 622. Furthermore,
the number of lines on the
screen (27) is held in loca¬
tion 623. Very useful ef¬
fects can be achieved by
changing the values in
these locations. If 621 is
DOKEed with 47960,
then the top line of the
screen is freed and can be
used quite normally.
However, a PLOT com¬
mand will still work on the
same lines as previously.
It is therefore only possi¬
ble to use a PRINT state¬
ment for this new 'top
line'. The bottom line of
the screen will not scroll
now and could thus be
used as the status or pro¬
mpt line. If the location
623 is POKEd with 28
however, all 28 lines on
the screen can now be us¬
ed quite normally.

Choosy scrolling

By setting the start
address of the screen
printing and the number
of lines to print, the

screen. If you enter these
two lines:

10 HIRES

20 DOKE 621,40920 :

POKE 623,199

and RUN the program
then you will see the
flashing cursor at the top
left hand corner of the
HIRES screen. The value
of the ASCII character
that you type on the
keyboard is what is
displayed on the HIRES
screen and not the
character itself as you will
understand when you
read further. For example
'?' will produce a con¬
tinuous line, '@' will pro¬
duce a blank, ' * 7 will pro¬
duce a dotted line. Of
course all of the attributes
can now be entered
directly by using the 'ESC'
key and the keyboard
character, as explained in
the article in the April edi¬
tion of PCT. The number
of lines set up is 1 99 so
the cursor can be posi¬
tioned anywhere on the
HIRES screen. Fortunately
the standard HIRES cursor
is not affected, so all the
HIRES commands can be
used as normal. HIRES
displays could therefore
be set up and saved to
tape in the same manner
as the TEXT screen was.
A program could be writ¬
ten to take full advantage
of this technique which
opens up all sorts of
possibilities.

Inverse characters

A similar effect to the
plotting routines describ¬
ed earlier can be achieved,
albeit with some limita¬
tions, by using inverse
characters. For some
unknown reason Oric
omitted a routine to create
inverse characters directly
from a BASIC keyword,
although having the

keywords inverse and nor¬
mal stored in the Oric
ROM obviously indicated
the possibility of im¬
plementing them.
However, it is a fairly sim¬
ple matter to create an in¬
verse character by adding
1 28 to its ASCII number,
which is encoded by Oric,
and printed out as an in¬
verse character. Try the
following short proyiarr'’

10 CLS:W$= "INVERSE
VIDEO"

20 Y - 1 0:X = 5
30 FOR Z = 1 TO LEN
(W$)

40 PLOT X + Z,Y,
ASC(MID$(W$,
Z,1))+ 128
50 NEXT Z

Run the program and
the string 'INVERSE
VIDEO' will be printed in
inverse to the screen at
the X and Y co-ordinates.
The colours will however
depend on the F/B at¬
tributes that are set to the
left of the string; see
Figure 1.

If the nearest back¬
ground attribute to the left
of the string is blue, then
the string will be printed
to the screen in a 'yellow'
box. The character colour
will be determined by the
nearest foreground at¬
tribute to the left of the
string. If this is white then
the characters will be
printed in black.

Speed through
redefinition

A quicker way to
achieve inverse charac¬
ters (if the alternate
character set — ACS — is
not required) is to redefine
them. Unfortunately it is
not possible to redefine
the whole ASCII character

set as this would overflow
into the screen memory.
However the following
program will redefine from
ASCII 32 (space), to
ASCII 1 1 1 (lower case
'o'):

10 FOR X = 46336 TO
46855

20 POKE X + 1024,
63-PEEK(X)

30 NEXT X

All that has to be done
now when plotting a str¬
ing is to add the ACS
CHR$ number to the
beginning of the string.
Thus if W$ holds the
word to be printed then:

PLOT X,Y,CHR$(9) + W$
+ CHR$(8)

would print W$ as an in¬
verse string — CHR$(9)
selecting the ACS and
CHR$(8) switching back
to the standard set.

As indicated in a
previous article it is not
possible to print a word
where each character
changed colour, unless
there is a space between
the characters, although
this could be achieved-
with some manipulation
of the inverse colours.
The following program
achieves this effect:

10 CLS : W$ =
"ALTERNATE
COLOUR"

20 Y= 10 : Y= 10
30 FOR Z= 1 TO LEN
(W$) STEP 2
40 N = ASC(MID$(WS,
Z,1)

50 V = ASC(MID$(W$,

Z+ 1,1)) + 128
60 PLOT X + Z,Y,N :

PLOT X + Z+ 1,Y,V
70 NEXT Z

The program plots the

characters in W$ alter¬
natively in standard and
inverse form and each
position therefore chan¬
ges colour, albeit in the
same pattern, showing
what can be achieved
with a little fore-thought.
Remember to keep the
length of W$ to an even
number.

Oric's sensational
sound

Now we pass into
another exciting, and to
my mind, underrated
facility on the Oric —
sound. Not only does the
Oric have four sound
channels, with envelope
control, it is also very
loud! Even better, the
Oric's sound output can
be channelled through
your hi-fi system. The
neighbours may not take
too kindly to this, and
disturbing Granny's forty
winks with a salvo of
'zaps' would be most
unkind but it has its uses.
The resulting sound out¬
put on a good system is
impressive to say the
least.

Pre-programmed
sound effects

There are four useful
pre-programmed sound
effects on the Oric, which
are as follows:

EXPLODE — produces an
explosion
sound

PING — Produces a

bell-line tone
SHOOT — Produces a
short gunshot
sound

ZAP — Produces a

typical 'space
invader' sound.

All of these sounds can be
used freely within a pro¬
gram. Note that the first
three return control to the

Figure 1 inverse colours used on the Oric.
BLACK ^ irWHITE

BLUE i ' jtYELLOW

INVERSE-

GREEN ^ /

4

-O* 1 MAGENTA

Table 2 Machine code program to POKE
values into registers.

LDX, 0 162,0 ; Load X register with

value

LDY, 0 1 60,0 ; Load Y register with

value

JSR, EFA6C 32,108,250; Jump to EFA6C

subroutine

RTS 96 ; Return to BASIC

60 CALL 40000 : PRINT

: GOTO 30

Line 50 will place the
X and Y values into the
machine code program.
These values must be bet¬
ween 0 to 255. Try enter¬
ing 2 and 4 for the values
as this is the most com¬
mon sound effect. Some
very interesting sounds
can be produced by enter¬
ing different values, and
you may well discover
some really good ones.
Remember that there are
65536 possible combina¬
tions! If you are feeling
lazy then put the program
in an X and Y loop to pick
its own numbers (with a
time delay). Print out the
X and Y values so that
when a good sound is pro¬
duced you can make a
note of the values. Try
some of the values given
in Table 3 as an example
of the different types of
sound that can be produc¬
ed. You may not agree
with some of my descrip¬
tions of these sounds but
you will find them very
useful to incorporate into
your programs.

Next month David
Ellis will go into details of
how the MUSIC, SOUND
and PLAY commands are
used to program the Oric
for sound.

program without any
pause.

For example:

10 EXPLODE
20 PRINT "EXPLODE"
'EXPLODE' will be printed
before the explosion
sound dies away, but:

10 ZAP

20 PRINT "ZAP"

'ZAP' will only be printed
after the ZAP sound has
finished. This is useful in a
FOR...NEXT loop as in:

10 FOR X = 1 TO 10
20 ZAP : NEXT X

A salvo of 10 ZAPS will
be produced (remember
your Granny!) — the
typical 'space invader'
sound. If any other sound
commands are placed in
this loop no difference will
be apparent. None of
these sounds can be
altered, and the volume
level is preset. They all ac¬
tually jump to the same
ROM routine at EFA6C,
and it is only the values
that are passed via the X
and Y registers that are
different. The ROM ad¬
dresses of these sounds
and the values passed to

the X and Y registers are
as in Table 1.

The 'keyclick' and
'return click' are the key¬
board clicks and are not
available through a BASIC
command (except for
on/off using PRINT
CHR $ (6)). The short
machine code program
shown in Table 2 will pass
values to the X and Y
registers and then call the
EFA6C subroutine.

The values for the X
and Y registers will be
POKEd in by the BASIC
program. The machine
code program can be plac¬
ed high up in RAM — say
40000, by the following
two lines:

Internal workings of the Oric I.

Table 3 Different sounds produced by
varying values of X and Y

Y

3

2

2

254
250
21 1

254
208
21 1

255
253
237

TYPE OF SOUND

Explosion
Raspberry ping!
Steam train
Blacksmith with wind
Siren

Repeating explosions
Jet engine
Helicopter
Aeroplane

Big Ben gone wrong?
Breaking waves
Deep chime

X

2

2

234
200
184
33
141
33
221
1 1 1
1 1 1
127

10 FOR X = 0 TO 7 :
READ A : POKE
40000 + X,A :
NEXT X

20 DATA 162,0,
160,0,32,108,
250,96

The BASIC part of the pro¬
gram to input the values
for the X and Y registers,
and to call the machine
code program will be:

30 INPUT "VALUE FOR
X REGISTER”; X
40 INPUT " VALUE FOR
Y REGISTER" ; Y
50 POKE 40001, X :
POKE 40003, Y

Table 1

ROM ADDRESS

SOUND

X

Y

£F41 8

EXPLODE

185

250

£F41 2

PING

141

250

£F41 5

SHOOT

163

250

£F41 B

ZAP

235

2

250

£FAFA

KEYCLICK

251

£FB10

'RETURN' CLICK

24

251

DOT MATRIX PRINTERS

ALL PRINTERS HAVE CENTRONIC PARALLEL INTERFACE UNLESS
OTHERWISE STATED. ALL PRINTERS HAVE HI RES, DOT
ADDRESSABLE GRAPHIC MODE, PLEASE SEND SAE FOR
FULL DETAILS.

EPSON

FX 80 160 CPS 10' wide fric & pin feed
FX 100 160 CPS. 15" wide fric & tract feed
RX80F/T 100 CPS. 10" wide frict & tract feed
RX80T 100 CPS. 10" wide tractor feed
LQ1500 200 CPS Letter quality printer
8143 RS 23 Interface for FX and RX printers
8148 RS232 Interface with 2K buffer xon.xoff
Ribbon Cartridge for RX80 FX80 & MX80
Ribbon Cartridge for FX100 & MX100

STAR

Gemini 10X 120 CPS. 10” .wide fric & tract feed
Gemini 15X 120 CPS. 15" wide frict. & tract
Delta 10 160 CPS 10" wide, frict & tract feed
Delta 15 160 CPS 15" wide, frict & tract feed
Radix-10 200 CPS NLQ 16K Buffer Par &
serial interface, downloadable characters,
incredible value at

Radix-15 15" wide version of Radix-10

SEIKOSHA

GP100A 50 CPS. 10" wide, tractor feed
GP250X 50 CPS. 10" wide, trac feed ser &par
GP100VC 30CPS 10" wide VIC 20 & 64 interf
GP500A 50 CPS 10" wide, tractor feed
GP550A 50 CPS. 10" wide friction & tract
correspondence quality

GP100AS Serial interface, ideal for Spectrum
with microdrive

SHINWA

CP80 80 CPS. 10" wide friction & tract feed
Spare ribbon cartridge for CP80

CANON

PW1080A 160 CPS. 10" wide. 27 CPS NLQ
24 x 16 matrix

PW1156A 160 CPS. 15" wide. 27 CPS NLQ
24 x 16 matrix

COLOUR PRINTERS

Seikosha GP700A 7 colour, 50 CPS printer
Canon PJ1080A 7 colour 40 CPS ink jet printer
CPP40 40 column 4 colour battery operated

ALL OUR PRINTERS HAVE 1 YEAR WARRANTY

£344 - VAT = £395
£431 - VAT - £495
£261 * VAT -- £299
£234 * VAT -- £269

£29♦ VAT £33
£60 + VAT £69
£7 + VAT r £7
£12 + VAT £13

£200 * VAT £229
£295 + VAT £339
£327 + VAT = £375
£414 f VAT ' £475

£156 + VAT =
£196 + VAT :
£174 * VAT =
£187 + VAT -

£179

£225

£199

£215

£234 + VAT = £269
£174 + VAT = £199

£200 + VAT = £229

£283 + VAT - £325
£347 + VAT = £399

347 + VAT = £399
£391 + VAT = £449
£118+ VAT r £135

DAISYWHEEL PRINTERS

JUKI 6100

20 CPS Bi-Directional Logic seeking 10.12 15 CPI ->

Spacing 2K buffer bes selling Daisywheel

Singer sheet feeder unit

Tractor Unit

RS 232 Interface

Spare Daisywheel

BROTHER HR-15

13 CPS Bi-directional 10 12 15 CPI * PS
Keyboard Unit
Single Sheet Feeder Unit
Tractor Unit

£334 - VAT ; £395
£217 + VAT £249
£95 * VAT £109
£52 - VAT £59
£17 * VAT £19

£344 - VAT
£139 - VAT
£217 * VAT
£95 * VAT

£395

£159

£249

£109

£260 * VAT £299

£208 • VAT £239

PROFESSIONAL

MONITORS

SANYO

MICROVITEC

FIDELITY

PHOENIX

SANYO

DM8112 12" Green screen 18 MHZ Hi-Res
DM2112 12" Green screen 15 MHZ Monitor
CD3125 14" RGB Normal Res Colour Monitor
CD3117 14" RGB Medium Res Colour Monitor
CD3115 14" RGB High Res Colour Monitor

MICORVITEC CUB

1431 MS 14" RGB Normal Res Colour Monitor
1451 MS 14" RGB Medium Res Colour Monitor
1441 MS 14" RGB High Res Colour Monitor

PHOENIX

Phoenix High Res 12" Green Monitor
Phoenix High Res 12" Amber Monitor

£173 - VAT
£286 • VAT
£391 - VAT

£199

£329

£449

£173 - VAT £199
£321 • VAT £369
£417 - VAT £479

£187 • VAT £215

BBC MICROCOMPUTER SYSTEM

WE ARE AN OFFICIAL BBC
COMPUTER DISTRIBUTOR

DEALER ENQUIRIES ARE WELCOMED

Acorn Electron £199

INC

VAT

WE 5UPPLY FREE 30 HOUR BASIC BOOK AND
WITH EACH BBC COMPUTER

BBC is the best microcomputer currently on the market,

32K RAM 32K ROM. 8 modes of operation, full colour, full
size keyboard, internal expansions such as disc interface,
speech synthesizer Econet interface — in short it is a
personal computer capable of expanding into a small
business system

BBC Microcomputer Model B

BBC Mod B - disk interface

BBC Mod B - Econet interface

BBC Mod B - disk and Econet interfaces

BBC 100K disk drive

BBC dual 800K disk drive

Torch Z80 disk pack including Z80 2nd

processor 64K RAM and CPN operating

system - Free Perfect Software

BBC Teletext receiver (Aug)

BBC cassette recorder ana lead
Disk interface kit (free fitting)

Mod A to Mod B upgrade kit
Fitting charge for A to B upgrade kit
16K memory upgrade kit
Games paddles

12" Monochrome monitor incl cable
14" Colour monitor incl cable
User guide

Econet interface (free fitting)

Speech interface (free fitting)

BBC disk manual - formating disk

Parallel printer cable

BBC word processor (view)

BBC Fourth language cassette
BBC Lisp language cassette

A DUST COVER

£348 • VAT £399
£409 • VAT £469
£389 • VAT £447
£450 • VAT £517
£230 • VAT £264
£699 - VAT £803

£696 •
£196 •
£26

VAT £799
VAT £225

• VAT £29

• VAT £96

• VAT £80

• VAT £23

• VAT £34

• VAT £12
VAT £102
- VAT £22

• VAT

• VAT

• VAT

• VAT

• VAT

• VAT

• VAT

• VAT

£69

£59

£17

APPROVED ECONET SERVICE CENTRE

, WE STOCK A LARGE RANGE OF SOFTWARE FOR BBC MICRO
INCLUDING ACORNSOFT BBC SOFTWARE LONGMANS SOFTWARE
FOR FULL A DETAJLS° LARGE STAMPED ADDRESSED ENVELOPE

TORCH Z80 2nd PROCESSOR
For only £347 + VAT

iupp lie
jelling

Z80 2nd Process * Perfect Software

Z80 Processor * Perfect Software + Dual BOOK

Disk Drives

£347 * VAT - £399
£695 * VAT - £799

GUARANTEED LOWEST PRICES

100% BBC COMPATIBLE MITSUBISHI
AND TEAC SLIMLINE DISK DRIVES

These drives are supplied ready cased with all the necesary cables
formating program and User Guide

There aresome very useful utilities included on formating disc e q
. DISASSEMBLER 1 This is 6502 machine code disassembler
DUP To copy and rename a file on disc
‘ FORMAT Formating program for 40 & 80 tracks
' FREE This utility provides a disk usage analysis
. MDUMP' Enables you to display and modify any part of BBC memory
MERGE Merge a number of text files into one file
RELOCATE Downloads a basic program to &E00
’ SDUMP Screen dump for EPSON in all graphic modes
VERIFY Verifies every sector on a disk
MENU A flexible menu program

Single drive 100K 40 trks. single Sided £147 ■

Dual drive 200K, 40 trks. single sided £286 -

Single drive 200K. 40 trks. double sided £173 -

Dual drive 400K, 40 trks. double sided £330 -

Single drive 400K 80 trks, double sided £199 •

Single drive 400K 40/80 trks. switchable, DS £217 ■

Dual drive BOOK 80 trks. double sided £382 <

Dual drive 800K 40/80 trks. switchable. DS £408 <

All above drives are low power slimline. (0 3 A typ at * 12v and 0 4 A at + 5v
per drive) Normally extra power supply is not required, the BBC Computer
E°wersupp ls designed to drive two low power drive (IT IS NOT
DESIGNED TO DRIVE INTERNAL ROM BOARD)

40 Track SS/DD disketts (10/Box) £18 + VAT £20

40 Track DS/DD disketts (10/Box) £23 - VAT - £26

80 Track SS'DD disketts (10/Box) £?8 - VAT £32

80 Track DS'DD disketts (lO-'Box) £30 + VAT £34

ALL ABOVE DISKETT ARE CERTIFIED EITHER MEMOREX OR DETALIFE

VAT = £169
VAT = £329
VAT - £199
VAT £379
VAT - £229
VAT - £249
VAT £439
VAT r £469

YOUR CONTACTS AT AKHTER ARE

DEALER/BULK ENQUIRIES

HAMAYUN MUGHAL

TELEPHONE ORDERS

PAULA HAY'ES

DEALER ORDERS

TONY GLOVER

BUSINESS SYSTEMS ENQUIRIES

DENNIS SUTCH

EXPORT ENQUIRIES

MAHAMAD EDIB

ECONET SYSTEM TECHNICAL ENQUIRIES

ALAN LAFFOLEY

ACCOUNTS

CARON ANDREWS

DESPATCH

PAUL SWIFT

REPAIRS

JOHN MAULE

BUSINESS SYSTEMS

APRICOT — SIRIUS — SANYO
IBM — TEXAS — TORCH

APRICOT "Portable Executive Computer" 16 Bit Micro. 256K RAM up to
1 44 megabytes floppy disk storage 3V ? ” Sony disks. Portable brief case
styling. Modem with auto dialler (optional) hard disk optional Vast software
library (compatible with Sirius 1)

Apricot with Single Drive and Motitor £1690 + VAT

Apricot with Double Drive and Monitor and

Free Printer or 2nd Monitor £1890 + VAT

SANYO PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER

16 Bit Micro 128K RAM expandable to 256K. Single or Double Disk Drive
built in full colour graphics (640 x 200 pixels in 8 colours) IBM compatible
Free software. Sanyo MBC 550 128K RAM single drive and free software
Including Wordstar and Calcstar £749 * vat

Sanyo MBC555 128K double drive and free software including Wordstar
Calcstar. Inforstar Datastar etc £999 * VAT

SIRIUS 1 Sirius 1 Computer with 128K RAM and 1.2 megabyte Floppy
disc storage including CP/M 86. MS DOS and

Microsoft Basic £2195 + VAT

Including C C/M 86 MS DOS & Microsoft Basic

£2895 + VAT

TORCH

CF500 COMPUTER with colour monitor includes Twin 400K disks. Torchnet
Operating System free perfect software (perfect writer, perfect speller
perfect calc perfect filer). Torchmail Plus (Electronic Mail) Torcn Mars
(Financial modelling with graphics) Torch tel (Viewdata Access System)
Executive Aid (Menu System)

Datel 600 (Link to outside mainframe services 1 e

Telecom Gold) £2950 + VAT

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER

Tl 502 Dual 320KB Drives 256K RAM Up to 10 megabyte on board storage
possible Tl speech command hardware option brings a new level of user
friendliness to computing. Allows voice operated keyboard control
(Optional) Pnce £2650 + VAT

MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS ARE AVAILABLE.

COMPLETE WORDPROCESSING
SYSTEMS

INCLUDING DAISYWHEEL PRINTER
From £695 + VAT

SYSTEM 1BBC Micro model B. Wordwise. Phoenix monitor. Smith Corona
TP1 Daisywheel Printer. Cassett Recorder + all the necessary cables and
documentation £696 + VAT - £799.25

SYSTEM 2. BBC Micro model B + Disk Interface. Phoenix Monitor 100K
Single Disk Drive. Wordwise. Smith Corona Daisywheel Printer
+ all the necessary cables and documentation.

Price only £895 + VAT = £1029.25

SYSTEM 3. BBC Micro model B + Disk Interface. Phoenix Monitor Dual
Disk Drives 200K. Wordwise. Smith Corona Daisywheel Printer + ail the
necessary cables and documentation.

Price £999 + VAT = £1148.85

SYSTEM 4. BBC Micro model B + Disk Interface. Sanyo High-Res Green
Monitor. Wordwise (or view), Juki 6100 Daisywheel Printer. Single 400K
Disk Drive + all the necessary cables and documentation

£1049 - VAT - £1206.35

SYSTEM 5. BBC Mod B Micro + Disk-Interface. Sanyo High Res Green
Monitor, Wordwise (or view). Juki 6100 Daisywheel Printer. Dual Disk
Drive 800K + all the necessary cables and documentation.

Price £1195 + VAT = £1374.25

SYSTEM 6. Sanyo 16 Bit. IMB pc Compatible Micro. 128K RAM. Single Disk
Drive 160K. Wordstar. Calc Star, Sanyo High Res Green Monitor Juki 6100
Daisywheel Printer + all cable and documentation

Price Only £1145 * VAT = £1316.75

SYSTEM 7. Sanyo 16 Bit. IBM pc Compatible Micro 128K RAM, Dual Disk
Drives 360K. Wordstar. Calc Star. Mailmerge. Infostar. Spellstar Datastar
Sanyo High Res Green Monitor. Juki 6100 Daisywheel Printer + and all
necessary cables and documentation.

Price £1395 * VAT -- £ 1604.25

Price £1,445 - VAT - £1661.75

SYSTEM 9. All the components of System 7 but with Sanyo High Res Colour
Monitor and Wordstar with Colour Facilities

Price £1695 - VAT -- £1949.25

WE CAN ALSO SUPPLY PACKAGES WITH COMPONENTS OF YOUR
OWN CHOICE. PLEASE PHONE (0279) 412639 AND ASK FOR
HAMAYUN MUGHAL FOR A PRICE.

AKHTER INSTRUMENTS LTD T fi

CDfTlPLITER CROUP

28/29 BURNT MILL

HARLOW, ESSEX. CM20 2HU U.K.

Tel. HARLOW (0279) 443521 Telex: 818894 AKHTER G

ORDERING INFORMATION:

We accept official orders from UK Government and Education
establishments Carriage is Free (UK only) for normal delivery If express
delivery is required please add £8.00 + VAT per parcel We accpet telephone
orders on Barclay and Access Card please ring (0279) 443521 (10 lines)
All cheques made payable to "AKHTER INSTRUMENTS"

OPENING HOURS: MON-FRI 9am-6.30pm, SAT 10am-5pm
We welcome callers, no parking problems.

miL

FOR THE

USER OF THE BBC MICRO

A&B Computing is a new bi-monthly publication
dedicated to users of the BBC Micro.

Priced at £1.95, forthcoming issues of A&B Computing
will contain features on various aspects of the system,
courses on improving your techniques in graphics,
sound and assembly language, reviews of software and
new add-ons, as well as plenty of exciting games
and utility programs for you to run. Indeed,
everything you’ll need to make the most of your
BBC Micro.

So, no matter whether you’re a raw beginner or
an accomplished programmer, we’re sure you’ll find
A&B Computing the magazine you simply can’t do
without. And, just to prove it, we’re offering you
the chance to take out a subscription at the same
rates that you would pay in the shops and not
a penny more.

DON’T MAKE YOUR BBC MICRO MISS OUT, SUBSCRIBE TO A&B COMPUTING TODAY!

Subscription Order Form

Cut out and SEND TO:

A&B COMPUTING
Infonet Ltd (Subs)

179 The Marlowes
Hemel Hempstead
Herts HP1 IBB

Please commence my subscription
with the very next issue.

1 am enclosing my (delete as necessary)
cheque/Postal Order/International Money

Order for £ .

(made payable to ASP Ltd)

OR

Debit my Access /Barclaycard *

(* delete as necessary)

Id

Please use BLOCK CAPITALS and include post codes.

NAME (Mr/Mrs/Miss).

ADDRESS.

SUBSCRIPTION

RATES

(tick □ as
appropriate)

£11.70 for six issues UK

£14.00 for six issues
overseas surface mail

£21.60 for six issues
overseas mail

□

□

□

POSTCODE.

Signature
Date . . .

€®N€tiliST

CONQUEST A tactical game which even veteran
players will find both challenging and rewarding.

Mediterranean Europe is divided into grid squares. Your
aim, as Emperor, is to gain 100 squares of territory as quickly as
possible — at the same time dealing with Barbarian counter¬
attacks, plagues, civil war and rival Emperors.

5 levels of skill, plus a continuous ‘Conquest’ game where
all the difficulty levels are thrown in together.

3D BAT ATTACK An all action, 3 dimensional

maze game where you gather up blocks of gold, at the same
time pitting your wits against vicious vampire bats whose
only purpose in life is to locate, hunt and kill you.

4 levels of skill. At each level the game gets faster and
more complicated, and the vampires more dangerous.

•39PBIS.

Am

AFTER THESE.

THE REST IS KIDS STUFF.

Are you ready for CheetahSoft?

There’s only one way to find out.

But be warned: these vampire bats know
a good meal when they see one. And our
friend with the c -

scythe has had years y n06tanSott
of experience...

So don’t play unless you’re ready
to play the game for real. Because you’ll
find there’s one sure thing about
CheetahSoft: Soft we’re not.

£6.95 at all
good stores.

Soft we’re not

fer *mu

THE GREEDY DWARF

cassette version, BBC Model B, Commodore 64,
ZX Spectrum (48K), Acorn Electron

GOLDSTAR ENTERTAINMENT

classic tales of mystery and adventure to challenge your
greatest puzzle-solving skills

Imaginatively written and intelligently programmed, this is
software which captivates and enchants, and provides hours
of creative activity.

GOLDSTAR HOME REFERENCE

informative and helpful programs which teach useful,
practical skills

With applications to business and professional purposes as well, this is
software which will turn your home computer into an invaluable
learning resource.

TINYTOUCILN'GO
cassette version
Dragon 32,

BBC Model B,

Commodore 64,
Acorn Electron

OnlM the hrmst of the hr me f war ti
gingA gold; join tXum if ^dare!

SKETCHPAD
cassette version
BBC Model B/
Acorn Electron

Gs\ Ft V yKTK/PJSOJsr
JHTours of drawing fort
with the ultimate in
electronic easels A

-A U S'! R >R TREASURE'
m HKillT Yt'tfJ HKRUD’HUT
W11 k Yt * 1 KVHK I irrUkNv

) x >N' T! K MASSON

/ / K.y . uk n r i

/ A lters! sinoi ri

- 11* « %*• «««« *tt%%

t*'«sd «%H=

n*.x%

THE CITY OF ’EHDOLLAH
cassette version, ZX Spectrum (48K),
BBC Model B, Commodore 64, Dragon 32

GOLDSTAR EDUCATION

teacher-and-pupil tested programs that really aid learning

Developed with education authority programmers, this is
software that presents academically sound content in innovative and
exciting ways.

LEARX ABOUT SHAPES g
cassette version for f
BBC Model B. 1
Acorn Electron

LEARN ABOUT WORDS
cassette version for
BBC Model B

&&**&$#**mKmfyguf //?%** A

Sr 5

* '^*JZST£*&2 ? r *•

^ mu—mill T***nmtf

for today’s computer user

FT

!

■ i

IMI

Outperforms any Spectrum interface

The unique Turbo interface from Ram gives you all these
features - and more - in one unit

$ A variety of interfaces including Rom cartridges, two 9-way D plugs
for standard joysticks, PLUS full expansion bus at rear.

% Compatible with Kempston and Protek protocols.

Works with latest Quickshot Mk II auto rapid-fire joysticks!

sj: Choice of Rom cartridge or tape cassette software.

ij: Instant program loading with cartridge software.

iH Built-in power safety device - unique to Ram Turbo.

^ Full one year guarantee.

% Immediate availability- 24 Hr despatch on receipt of
PO./credit card details (cheques-seven days).

sfc Incredible value - only £22.95.

So don’t wait around - simply complete
the coupon and send it to us today.

Or call our credit card hot line on 02514 25252. (Access and
Visa welcome).

Ram Electronics (Fleet) Ltd, 106 Fleet Road, Fleet, Hampshire
GU138PA

r

Please send me:

w 24 Hr
r d JPatch for
cred « cards and
Postal orders

. Spectrum Turbo Interface® at £22.95
+ £1 p+p (overseas orders £3 p+p)

. Quickshot II Joystick® at £9.95
(Only when purchased with Turbo - normally £12.95 + £1 p+p)

I enclose cheque/postal order or charge my Access/Visa for £_

Name_

Address-

Tel.

PCT7

To: Ram Electronics (Fleet) Ltd, 106 Fleet Road, Fleet, Hampshire GU13 8PA.

J

Trade and export enquiries welcome.

»_i_i_»_i_*_i_i_i_i_i_i_* i i i i i i i i i i i i rrrrrrrr

1 ijjjjTijjTiVijTiTmVmTr

, nerercncc, i,, • ,•,,, ,, ,, rrrrrrrrrrrr

MlIII! III! I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I | | | | I

Directory of

Software

Houses

PC7 has compiled this usefui directory of more
than 200 software houses for you to keep as

a handy reference guide.

Judging by the numerous
enquiries we handle every
week from readers trying
to trace a particular pro¬
gram for their micro, there
are many of you who need
a guiding hand through
the software jungle.

There are now many
thousands of programs
available for home com¬
puters ranging from
educational games for
three year ^olds, through
adventures', simulations
and arcade-type to
business accounting and
marketing packages.
Although quite often a
producer will convert
these programs to run on
a range of micros, several
limit their range to one,
two or a group of similar
micros such as the BBC
and Electron or VIC 20
and CBM64. Such com¬
plications can lead to con¬
fusion, and advice from
dealers is often none too
helpful.

We thought that a
directory such as this
would provide a handy
reference guide for

readers. Obviously, pro¬
viding details of every pro¬
gram produced by a soft¬
ware house is outside the
scope of the directory —
such information would
fill the pages of the
magazine — and besides,
there is our own Software
Checklist to refer which is
fairly comprehensive in
this respect. There are
also magazines available
which are dedicated to
providing this sort of in¬
formation and you should
turn to these for reviews,
listings and ideas of what
to buy.

But if you know what
kind of program you want
and the machine you want
it for, there are to our
knowledge, no reference
sources to which to turn
to find out where to ob¬
tain it. It is hoped that this
directory will go some
way to filling that gap by
referring you directly to
the producers of the pro¬
grams.

the names and addresses
of more than 200 soft¬
ware houses and in most
cases gives the telephone
number of the company.
Each producer listed has
been contacted for details
of the type of software
available and the
machines catered for.
Thus if you want a
specific educational pro¬
gram for say the VIC20,
all you need to do is to
look down the list of sup¬
pliers until you find one
producing this type of
software for that
machine. Then telephone
them for further details.
Simple isn't it?

Detailing the suppliers
under various categories
would result in mass
duplication since most
software houses produce
a range of types of pro¬
grams for different
machines.

Who's included

What is included

The directory provides

We have included
details of every software
producer who has come

liiiiiiiii iiiiiiiilllil!

■ : :

. ■,:y- ; v-;--;.:.

Directory

to our attention. A large
number of small com¬
panies who run their
businesses on a part-time
basis have not been in¬
cluded. This is not to say
that we consider such
operations disreputable,
but we have no way of
checking out details for
the hundreds of such
companies which exist.

All details given in this
guide were correct at the
time of going to press.

UB4 ORL

Tel: (0753) 45201

Hornchurch

Essex

RM11 2 LG

Tel: (04024) 53131

BH2 6HE

Tel: (0202) 296404

Gm

BBC, CBM 64, Dragon,
Oric, Spectrum, ZX 81

AMPALSOFT

Ampal Computer Services

31 Woodbridge Rd

Derby Green

Blackwater

Camberley

Surrey

Tel: (0252) 876677

ADDISON-WESLEY
PUBLISHERS LTD
53 Bedford Square
London
WC1B 3DZ
Tel: 01-631 1636

ABERSOFT
Maes Afallan
Bow St.

Dyfed

SY24 5BA

Tel: (0970) 828851

Ed

BBC, CBM 64, Dragon
Electron, Spectrum

Ad, Ar, St, Ut
BBC, CBM64, Electron
Lynx, Spectrum, ZX81

ANIROG S/W
29 West Hill
Dartford
Kent

DAI 2EL

Tel: (0322) 92513/8

ABRASCO LTD
The Grange Barn
Pikes End
Eastcote
Middx.

HA5 2EX

Tel: 01-866 2518

To save space we
have abbreviated the soft¬
ware categories as shown
below. Some names of
microcomputers have
been abbreviated into
their common forms e.g.
Commodore 64 is written
as CBM64. The suppliers
are listed in alphabetical
order.

Ar, Ut

VIC 20, CBM 64, Spectrum

Bs, Gm

CBM 64, Dragon, Spectrum
VIC 20

APPLIED SYSTEMS
KNOWLEDGE LTD (ASK)
London Hse

68 Upper Richmond Rd

London

SW1 5 2RP

Te: 01874 6046

ACORNSOFTLTD
4a Market Hail
Cambridge
CB2 3NJ

Tel: (0223) 316039

Adventure Games
Arcade Games
Business
Domestic
Educational
Games — family
entertainment
Simulation Games
Strategy Games
Utility

Bs, Ed, Gm, Ut
BBC, Electron

ADVENTURE ZONE S/W
LTD

10 Eanis Close

Harpenden

Herts.

ACS SOFTWARE
7 Lidgett Crescent
Rounday
Leeds
LS8 IAN

Tel: (0532) 667440

ARCADE S/W LTD
Technology Hse
32 Chislehurst Rd
Orpington
Kent

BR6 ODG
Tel: (66) 35639

Ed, Ut

BBC, IBM-PC, Spectrum
ZX-81

A & F SOFTWARE

Ar, Gm
Spectrum

ALLIGATA S/W LTD
178 West St.
Sheffield
SI 4ET

Tel: (0742) 755005

Unit 8 Canalside fnd. Estate
Woodbine Street
Rochdale
OL16 5 LB

Tel: (0706) 341111

ADAMSOFT
18 Norwich Ave
Rochdale
OL11 5JE

Tel: (0706) 524304

ARCADIA
Freepost
Swansea
SA3 4ZZ

Tel: (0792) 403363

Ar, Gm, Bs, Ut

BBC, CBM 64, Dragon,

Electron, Oric, Spectrum

Ad, Ar, Bs, St, Ut
BBC, CBM64, Dragon
Electron, MSX

Ar

Atmost, Oric

ALLRIAN DATA SERVICES
1000a Uxbridge Road
Hayes
Middx.

ARGUS PRESS SOFTWARE
1 Golden Square
London

AARDVAAK S/W

ADDICTIVE GAMES
7a Richmond Hill
Bournemouth

100 Ardleigh Green Rd

Tel: (0243) 829478

Ed, Ut

BBC, Spectrum

Ad, Ar, Ed, St
Atari, BBC, CBM 64,
Dragon, Electron, Spectrum
VIC 20

ARROW PUBLICATIONS
Hutchinson Hse
17-21 Conway St
London
WIP 6JD

Tel: 01-387 2811

BUBBLE BUS
87 High St
Tonbridge
Kent

TNI 1LS

Tel: (0732) 355962

Bs, Ed
Spectrum

BUG BYTE
Mulberry House
Canning Place
Liverpool
LI 8JB

Tel: 051-709 7071

Ad, Ar, Do, Ed, Ut
BBC, CBM 64, Electron,
Spectrum, VIC 20, ZX81

Calpac computer s/w

LTD

108 Hermitage Woods Cres

St. Johns

Woking

Surrey

GU 21 1UF

Tel: (04867) 2584

Ed

CBM 64, Spectrum, ZX81

ART 1C S/W

Main St

Brandesburton

Driffield

Y025 8RG

Tel: (0401) 43553

CAMEL MICROS
33a Commercial Rd
Weymouth
Dorset

Tel: (03057) 70092

Ed, Gm, Ut

Atari, CBM 64, One,

Spectrum, VIC 20, ZX-81

Ed, Ut
Spectrum

CAMPUTERS
33a Bridge St
Cambridge
CB2 1 UN

Tel: (0223) 315063

ATARI INTERNATIONAL

(UK) LTD

Atari Hse

Railway Terrace

Slough

Berks.

SL2 5BZ

Tel: (0753) 33344

CARNELL SOFTWARE LTD

North Weyinds Ind. Est.

Molesey Rd

Hersham

Surrey

KT12 3PL

Tel: (0932) 245812

Bs, Ed, Gm, Ut
Atari, BBC, CBM 64,
Electron, Spectrum, VIC 20

ATLANTIC SOFTWARE
18b Thorpe Rd

Kinston

Ad, Ar, Bs, Do, Ed, Gm, Ut

Surrey

BBC, Electron

KT2 5EV

BELLFLOWER S/W

Bs

6 Rosewood Avenue

VIC 20

Greenford

Middlesex

AUDIOGENIC LTD

Tel: 01-903 1816

39 Suttons Ind, Park

Reading

Do

Berks

Spectrum

Tel: (0734) 509709

BEL TECH S/W

Bs, Gm

Stanmore Industrial Estate

CBM 64, VIC 20

Bridgnorth

Shropshire

AUTOMATA UK LTD

WV1 5 5HP

27 Highland Rd

Tel: 07462 5420

Southsea

Portsmouth

Bs, Ed, Ut

Hants

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum

P04 9DA

Tel: (0705) 735242

BEYOND S/W

Durrant Hse

Ad, Ar, Gm

8 Herbal Hill

Spectrum

London

EC1R 5EJ

AVALON HILL GAMES

Tel: 01-251 8496

650 High Rd

North Finchley

Ad, Ar, St

London

Atari, CBM 64, Dragon,

N1 2 ONL

Spectrum

Tel: 01-445 3044

BOURNE EDUCATIONAL

Ad, Ar, St

S/W

Apple, Atari, Pet, TRS-80

Bourne Hse

Three Hundred

, AVC S/W

Romsey

PO Box 415

Hants

Birmingham

SO 5 8BY

B17 9TT

Tel: (0794) 523301

Tel: 021-426 6762

Ed

Ed

BBC, Electron

BBC, Electron, Spectrum,

ZX-81

BRIDGE S/W

36 Fern wood

AZTEC S/W

Marple Bridge

1 8 Gregory Springs Lane

Stockport

Mirfield

Cheshire

N. Yorks

SK6 5BE

WF14 SUE

Tel: 061-832 4209

Tel: (0924) 492826

Ar, Ad, Ed

Gm, Ut

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum,

BBC, CBM 64

VIC 20, ZX 61, ZX 81

BRYANTS EDUCATIONAL

Bbc pubs

S/W

35 Marylebone High St

1 The Hollies

London

Chalcrast Lane

WIM 4AA

North Derster

Tel: 01-580 5577

Bognor Regis

k i i i i i I I » i I i * i * i 1 i » ii I I I i I i I I i I i_rij

| " 1 "n i ci.ro.ri u *.i
rrI w,rewor Y rrrri'ri^rri^Qiri.ri.i.*!*. 1 .*!^^^^ 1
rrrrrrrrrr 0"0I0I0I*IC0I*-^

Tel: (0905) 55192 Bs, Ed, Gm, Ut

CBM 64, VIC 20

Ed, Gm

BBC, Electron, Spectrum
VIC 20

Gm

CBM 64, Spectrum, ZX81

C00LCHANCE
1 Milton Rd
Cambridge
CB4 1UY

Tel: (0223) 312453

CARSWELL COMPUTERS

Farringdon

Oxon

SN7 8JN

Tel: (036787) 238

CHANNEL 8 S/W LTD

51 Fishergate

Preston

Lancs

PR1 8BH

Tel: 0772

Ad, Ed, Ut/BS

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum

Ed

BBC, Electron

COPPICE S/W
7 March St
Kirton Lindsey
Gainsborough
DN21 4PH
Tel: (0652) 648550

CASES COMPUTER
SIMULATIONS (CCS)
1 4 Langton Way
London
SE3 7TL

Tel: 01 “858 0783

CHRISTINE COMPUTERS
LTD

6 Florence Close
Watford,

Herts

WD2 6AS

Tel: (0923) 672941

Ed, Gm
Dragon

Ad, Bs, Ed, Gm, St
BBC, Electron, Oric
Spectrum, ZX81

CORONA S/W
73 High Rd
South Woodford
London
El 8 2OP

Tel: 01-530 3747

CDS MICRO SYSTEMS

Silver Hse

Silver St

Doncaster

S. Yorks

Tel: (0302) 744129

COMPUSENSE LTD

286d Green Lanes

Palmers Green

London

N13 5XA

Tel: 01-882 0681

CLARES

98 Middlewich Rd

Northwich

Cheshire

CW9 70S

Tel: (0606) 48511

Ad, Ar, Ed, St
Atmos, CBM 64, Oric,
Spectrum, ZX-81

CREATIVE SPARKS
Thomson Hse
296 Farnborough Rd

Dragon

CENTRESOFT
Unit 24

Tipton Trading Estate
Bloomfield Rd
Tipton
W* Midlands
DY9 AH

Tel: 021-520 7591

COMPUTER1STIC SOFT

205 Wells Rd

Knowie

Bristol

BS4 2DF

Tel: (0272) 777431

Hants

Tel: (0252) 543333

CLOUD 9 S/W

4 Dolvin Rd

Tavistock

Devon

DL19 9EA

Tel: (0822) 5737

Gm

Atari, CBM 64, Spectron,
VIC 20

Ed

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum

CTECH

184 Market St

Hyde

Cheshire

SKI 4 1 EX

Tel: 061-366 8223

Ad, Ar, Bs, Do, Ed, St, Ut
Atari, CBM 64, Dragon,
Lynx, Oric, Spectrum,

VIC 20

COMPUTER RENTALS LTD
CRL House
9 Kings Yard
Carpenter's Rd
London El 5 2HD
Tel: 01-533 2919

COLLINS S/W
8 Grafton St
London
WIX 3LA

Tel: 01-493 7070

CGL

CGL House

Goldings Hill

Loughton

Essex

1610 2RR

Tel: 01-508 5600

Gm

Atmos, CBM 64, Dragon,
Oric, Spectrum, ZX81

CYLINDRICAL SOFTWARE

3/177 College Rd

Moseley

Birmingham

B13 9LJ

Ed

BBC, CBM 64, Electron
Spectrum

COMPUTER SHACK
14 Pitville St
Cheltenham
Gios.

Tel: (0242) 584343

Ed, Gm, Ut
CGL/Sord MS

COMMODORE BUSINESS
MACHINES (CBM) (UK) LTD
675 Ajax Ave
Trading Est.

Slough

Bucks

Tel: (0753) 74111

CHALKSOFT LTD
37 Willowstea Road
Worcester
WR3 7QP

Darkstar

32 Sovereign St

MJ.MJ.IJJJJ.IJJ I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III | |

,i_i_ , _i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i 1111111 i"i“i”i”i”i“i~i"i”i“i”i“i“i"ri”i
•_i_ , _i_i_i_i_i_i_i_ , _i_i_i_i j~i “rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri
MjjjjjjjjjjVijjjjjjVijjjViVnjjVn

Leeds > London NW1

LSI 4BJ . Tel: 01-485 3484

Tel: (0532) 452223

Ad, Ut

BBC, CBM 64, Electron
Spectrum, VIC 20

BBC, Dragon, Spectrum
Video Genie

Ad, Ar, St
BBC, Electron

Ed, Gm, Ut
Oric, Spectrum

EGA BEVA S/W
SESS Ltd

CEntral Trading Est.
275-277 Bath Rd
Bristol BS4 3EH
Tel: {0272} 710103

FOUNDRY BUSINESS

SYSTEMS LTD

2 Station Rd

Hammerwich

Walsall

W. Midlands

Tel: {05433} 2787

Ar, Bs, Ut

CBM 64, Spectrum

FOWLER C/W
Hendon Mill
Nelson
Lancs.

BB9 8AD

Tel: {0282} 865837

Ed, Ut
Spectrum

DAVID COMPUTER S/W
38 South Parade
Bramhal!

Stockport
SK7 3BJ

Tel: 061-439 4841

DURELL S/W

Castle Lodge

Castle Green

Taunton

TA4 1AB

Tel: 0823 54489

Ed, Gm, Ut

BBC, Electron, Enterprise

Bs, Ed, Grn/Ut
Sharp

Ar, Gm, Ut
CBM, Oric Spectrum

ELKAN ELECTRONICS
1 1 Bury New Rd
Prestwick
Manchester
MZ5 8JZ

Tel: 061-798 7613

DIAMONDSOFT LTD
11a Ladybridge Rd
Cheadle Huirne
Cheshire
SK8 5LL

Tel: 061-485 8705

DYNABYTE SOFTWARE

31 Topcliffe Mews

Wide Lane

Morley

Leeds

LS27 8UL

Tel: (0532) 835401

Bs, Ut

Dragon, Sharp PCI 251
T andy

Ar, Ut

BBC, Electron

ENGLISH SOFTWARE

COMPANY

50 Newton Street

Piccadilly

Manchester

Ml 2 FA

Tel: 061-835 1358

DIGITAL FANTASIA
Unit 3F Moorfields
Moor Park Industrial Estate
Blackpool
FY2 OJY

Tel: (0253) 591402

Galectic S/W

Unit 7, Larch Field Estate
Do wish Ford
llminster, Somerset
TA1 9 OPF
Tel: (04605) 5161

Ebury soft

72 Broadwick St

London

WIV 2BP

Tel: 01-439 7144

Ad, Ar, Ed, Ut
Atari, CBM 64

Ad, Ar, St

Atari, Atmos, BBC, CBM
64, Oric, Spectrum

Do, Ed

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum

Ar, Bs, Ed

CBM 64, Dragon, Spectrum
VIC 20

EXPRESS SOFTWARE
Express House
73 Watery Lane
Bordesley
Birmingham
B9 4HN

Tel: 021-771 471 1

DK'TRONICS
Unit 6

Shire Hill ind. Est.
Saffron Walden
Essex

CB11 3AQ

Tel: (0499) 26350

ED-SOFT EDUCATIONAL
Trevor Lope
76 Woodville Rd
Exmouth EX8 1SW
Tel: (0395) 275741

GAMES MACHINE LTD
40 Fretherne Rd
Welwyn Garden City
Herts.

AL8 6NU

Tel: (07073) 28444

Ed, Gm

GBM 64, Oric, Sharp
MZ700, Spectrum 48K

Ad, Ar, St

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum
VIC 20, ZX-81

Ar

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum
VIC 20

Fantasy s/w

Fauconberg Lodge
27a St. Georges Rd
Cheltenham
Glos.

GL50 3DT

Tel: (0242) 583661

DRAGON DATA LTD
Kenfig Ind. Est.
Margam
Port Talbot
W. Glam.

C A 1 Q Ope

Tel: (0656) 744700

GAMES WORKSHOP

27-29 Sunbeam Rd

London

NW10 6JP

Tel: 01-965 3713

Gm

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum

Gm, Ut

CBM 64, Spectrum

Ad, Ar, Bu, Do, Ed, St, Ut
Dragon

GARLAND COMPUTING
35 Dean Hill
Plymouth
PI 9 QAF

Tel: {0752} 41287

FBC SYSTEMS LTD
10 Castlefields
Main Centre
Derby

DUCKWORTH S/W LTD
The Old Piano Factory
43 Gloucester Cres.

Hill i

111111 111 rrrrrrrrrri
iii i iii 11111111 irrrrrrrrrrrri

i 111111111 i i i rrrrrrrrrrriTi

MjjjjjjjjjjjTijjTiTmVmViTiVijj

The Green, Tadley
Basingstoke
Hants.

Tel: 07356 71145
Ad, Ar, Ut

Atari, CBM 64, VIC 20

GED EDUCATIONAL S/W
70 Stoke Rd
Bletchley
Milton Keynes
MK2 3AD

Tel: (0908) 648368

Joe the lion

213/215 Market St

Hyde

Cheshire

SKI 4 1HF

Tel: j061 -366 7431

GEM SOFTWARE
The Mailings
Sawlondgenorth
Herts.

Tel: (0908) 565007

Ar, Ut

BBC, CBM 64, Oric,
Sinclair, QL, Spectrum

Gm, Ut

BBC, Dragon, Lynx
Spectrum, ZX81

JUNIPER COMPUTING
8 Pembroke Green
Lea

Malmesbury
SN16 9PB
Tel:(0662) 2689

GEMINI MARKETING

SERVICES

1 8 A Littleham Rd

Exmouth

EX8 2QG

Tel: (3095) 265165

Bs, Ed, Ut

Amstrad, Atmos, Dragon
Oric

Bs

Atari, BBC, CBM 64,
Dragon, Electron, Oric
Spectrum, VIC 20

Kemp ltd

43 Muswell Hill
London
N10 3PN

Tel: 01-444 5499

Bs

CBM 64, Spectrum

KINDERSOFT UK LTD
PO Box 1 23
Stone

Tel: (0782) 643219

Ad, Ed

Atmos, CBM 64, Oric
Spectrum

KOSMOS S/W
1 Pilgrims Close
Harlington, Dunstable
Bedfordshire
LU5 6LX

Tel: (05255) 3942

GRIFFIN S/W
285 Ealing Rd
Alperton
Wembley
Middx.

Tel: 01-997 3344

Ed

BBC, Spectrum

KRICON LTD
11 Medway
Hailsham
E. Sussex

mil

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum,

Ed

ZX-81

Spectrum

GOLEM LTD

Ijk software ltd

77 Qualitas

Unit 3, Moorfield

Bracknell

Moor Park Ave

Berks.

Bisham, Blackpool

RG12 4QG

Lancs. FY2 OJY

Tel: (0344) 50720

Tel: (0253) 55282

Ed, Ut

Ad, Ar, St

BBC. Electron

BBC, Oric

Hama s/w

IMAGINE S/W LTD

Imagine Hse

Sackville Place

5 Sir Thoams St

44-48 Magdalen ST

Liverpool

Norwich

LI 6BN

Tel: (0603) 616221

Tel: 051-236 8100

Bs, Ed

BBC, CBM 64

Gm

Atari, BBC, CBM 64,

Dragon, Electron, Spectrum,

HANDIC S/W

VIC 20

5 Albert Rd

IMPACT S/W

Crowthorne

70 Redford Ave

Berkshire

RG11 7LT

Edinburgh

EH 13 OBW

Tel: (0344) 778800

Tel: 031-441 4257

Bs, St, Ut

Ad, Ar, Ed

CBM 64, VIC 20

HCCS ASSOCIATES

BBC, Dragon, Oric,

Spectrum, VIC 20

533 Durham Rd

IMPERIAL SOFTWARE

Low Fell

Imperial Hse

Gateshead

153 Churchill Rd

NE9 5EV

Poole

Tel: (0632) 821924

Dorset

Tel: (0202) 723060

Bs, Ed

BBC

Ar, Ad, St

Spectrum

HEWSON CONSULTANTS

LTD

INCENTIVE S/W LTD

56B Milton Trading Est.

54 London Rd

Milton

Reading

Abingdon

Oxon

RG1 4SQ

Tel: (0734) 591678

OX14 4RX

Tel: (0235) 832939

Ad, Ar

CBM 64, Spectrum

Ad, Ar, Ed, Si

INTERSTELLA S/W

BBC, Dragon, Spectrum,

82 New Forest Drive

ZX-81

HOMESTUDY LTD

Treleigh Woods Farm

Brockenhurst

S04 72W

Tel: (0590) 23733

Treliegh

Ar

Redruth

Cornwall

Spectrum

TRT6 4AW

INTERCEPTOR MICROS

Te: (0209) 212244

Linden Hse

BN 2 7 SHE

Tel: (0323) 846110

Atari, CBM 64, Spectrum
VIC 20

LY VERSO FT
66 Lime Street
Liverpool LI 1JN
Tel: 051-708 7100

St Austell
Cornwall
PL25 5JE
Tel: 0726 3456

LOGIC 3

Mountbatten Hse
Victoria St
Windsor
SL4 1 HE

Tel: (07538) 57181

Ar, Bs, Do, St, Ut
Spectrum

Ar

CBM 64, Dragon Spectrum
VIC 20

Gm

Atari, BBC, CBM 64,
Dragon, Oric, Spectrum
Tandy

K-SOFT COMPUTERS
56 Bolham Lane
Retford
Notts.

DN22 6SY

Marketing micro

SOFTWARE LTD
Goddard Rd
Whitehouse Ind. Est.
Ipswich
IP1 5 NP

Tel: (0473) 462721

Ed, Ut
Spectrum

MICROMANIA

14 Lower Hill Road

Epsom

Surrey

KT19 8LT

Tel: (03727) 201 52

LONGMAN S/W
Longman Hse
Burnt Mill
Harlow
CM20 2JE
Tel: (0279) 26721

KUMA COMPUTERS LTD
12 Horseshore Park
Pan bourne, Berks.

RG8 7JW

Tel: (07357) 4335

Ar

Spectrum

MICROMEGA
230-236 Lavender Hill
London SW11 1LE
Tel: 01-223 7672/7904

Ed,

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum

MARTECH GAMES
Martech House
4 Bay Terrace
Pevensey Bay
East Sussex
BN 24 6NE
Tel: (0323) 768456

Ad, Ar, Bs, Do, St
Sharp, CBM 64, Spectrum

Bs, Ed, Gm
Spectrum

Level 9 computing

229 Hughenden Rd
High Wycombe
Bucks.

HP13 5PG

Tel: (0494) 26871

MICROPOWER
Northwood Hse
North Street
Leeds
LS7 2AA

Tel: (0532) 458800

Ad, Ar, Ed

Atmos, CBM 64, Spectrum

Ad

Atari, BBC, CBM 64, Lynx,
Memotech, Oric, Spectrum

MELBOURNE HOUSE

Castle Yard House

Castle Yard

Richmond

TW10 6TF

Tel: 01-940 6064

LIGHTNING S/W
48 Westbourne Rd
Penarth
S. Glams

Tel: (0222) 703749

MIKROGEN

1 Devonshire Cottages
London Rd
Bracknell
Berks.

RG1 2 2TQ

Tel: 0344 427317

Ad, Ar

CBM 64, Dragon, Oric
Spectrum, VIC 20

MED

Microtol Engineering Design

640 Melton Rd

Thurmaston

Leicester

LE4 8BB

Tel: (0533) 839170

LIVEWIRE S/W

Sumiock Microware (M/Cr)

Ltd

198 Deansgate
Manchester
M3 3NE

Tel: 061-834 4233

Ad, Ar, Do, Ut
Spectrum

LOTHLOR1EN
56a Park Lane
Poynton
Cheshire
SKI2 IRE

Tel: (0625) 876642

MINATRON COMPUTING
34 Pinwood Close
Westbury on trim
Bristol

RQQ 4A I

Tel: (0272) 623597

Ad, Ut

CBM 64, Sharp M280
MZ711, VIC 20

Ad, Ar, St
BBC, Dragon, Oric,
Spectrum, ZX-81

MICRO-ANTICS
Littlehome
Hawthorne Lane
Codsall
Staffs

Tel: (09074) 5147

Ad, Do, Ut
Spectrum

LLAMASOFT
49 Mount Pleasant
Tadley
Hants.

RG26 6BN

Tel: (07356) 4478

LYNDENHURSTLTD
38 Ashley Rd
London
N1 9 3AF

Tel: 01-263 9290

MIRRORSOFT
Holborn Circus
London
ECIP IDO
Tel: 01-353 0246

Ar , Bs

CBM 64, Spectrum

MICRODEAL LTD
41 Truro Rd

I_l_l_l_l l_l_l l_l l_l I I I I I I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I
I i i [T. " , , ~ ri rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

i i i l ' lr6tlor V i i i i“i i i"i”i"i”i“i“i“i"i”i“i”i“i”i“i“i“i“i“i”i

rr11 rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri-i

' mm • • mm * 119 flalp 111111 *■* mm *■» * ** «* *» Mi Mi mm mm Mi mi Mi mm mm mm mm t

MOVIE SOFT Manchester Ad, Ar

CBM 64, Dragon 32,

VIC 20

rvoXM

PEAKSOFT
7 Hawthorn Crescent
Burton-on-Trent
DEI 5 9OP
Tel: (0283) 44904

Ad, Ar, St

BBC, CBM 64, Dragon
Spectrum

PEE BEE SOFTWARE
PO Box 175
High Wycombe

Rprk o

Tel: (0874) 4448

Ad, St

BBC, Electron

BBC, CBM 64, Electron
Spectrum

PENGUIN STUDY S/W

Penguin Books Ltd

536 Kings Rd

London

SW10 OUH

Tel: 01-351 2392

MISTER MICRO
69 Partington Lane
Swinton
Mancheter
M27 3AL

Tel: 061-728 2282

Ed

BBC, Electron, Spectrum

Ad, Ar, St, Ut

Amstrad, Atmos, BBC, CBM
64, Dragon, Oric,

Spectra video, VIC 20

PERSONAL SOFTWARE
SERVICES

452 Stoney Stanton Rd

Coventry

CV6 5DG

Tel: (02031 667 556

MOGUL
PO Box 4BT
35-37 Wardour St
London
WIA 4BT

Tel: 01-437 3156

Gm, Ut

BBC, CBM 64, Dragon,
Memotech, Oric, Spectrum
ZX-S1

Ad, Ar, St, Ut

CBM 64, Spectrum, VIC 20

PHIPPS ASSOCIATES

172 Kingston Rd

Ewell

Surrey

KT1 9 OSD

Tel: 01-393 0283

J. MORRISON {MICROS}
LTD

2 Glensdale St
Leeds
Yorks
LS9 9J J

Tel: (0532) 480987

Ad, Ed, Gm
ZX-81, Spectrum

Ar

BBC, CBM 64, Dragon

PHOENIX SOFTWARE LTD

Spangles Hs

116 Marsh Rd

Pinner

Middx

Tel: 01-868 3353

MOSAIC PUB
187 Upper Street
Islington
London N1 IRQ
Tel: 01-359 7693

Ar, Ad

CBM 64, Dragon, Spectrum
VIC 20

Gm, Ad, Do, Ed, St
BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum

MOVIE SOFT

Manchester

1 Milton Rd

MS 5FD

Cambridge

Tel: 061 832 9143

CV4 1UY

Tel: (0223) 312453

Ar

CBM 64, Dragon, Oric,

Ad

Spectrum, VIC 20

CBM 64, Spectrum

ODYSSEY COMPUTING

MP S/W

28 Bingham Rd

1 65 Spital Rd

Sherwood

Bromborough

Nottingham

Merseyside

NG5 2EP

L62 2AE

Tel: 051-334 3472

Ut

ZX81

Ad, Ed

BBC, Electron

OIC COMPUTER

CONSULTANTS

MR CHIP S/W

1 5 Burghead Close

1 Neville Place

College Town

Llandudno

Camberley

Gwynedd

Surrey

LL30 3BL

GUI 5 4XL

Tel: (0492) 49747

Tel: (0344) 773229

Gm, Ut

Bs, Ed, St, Ut

CBM 64, Spectrum, VIC 20

BBC, CBM 64, Electron,

Spectrum

Nectarine

O.K. PRODUCTS

837 Yeoville Rd

65 Rainsborowe Rd

Slough

Colcheter

Berks.

Essex

SL1 4JH

C02 7JU

Tel: (75) 26769

Tel: (0206) 572082

Bs, Ut

Ed, Gm

Dragon

BBC

NEW GENERATION S/W

ORIC S/W

LTD

118 Worcester Rd

The Brooklands

Malvern Link

Sunnybank

WR14 1SS

Lyncombe Vale

Tel: (06845) 63343

Bath

BA2 4NA

Ad, Ar, Bs, Ed, St

Tel: {0225} 316924

Oric

Ar, Ed

CBM 64, Spectrum, ZX-81

Paean systems

Little Bealings

NUMBER 1 SYSTEMS

Woodbridge

9A Crown St

Suffolk

St. Ives

IP1 3 6LT

Huntingdon

Tel: (0473) 623757

PE17 4EB

Tel: (0480) 61778

Ar, Ut, Ed, St

BBC, Electron

Ut

BBC, Spectrum

PARAMOUNT S/W

67 Bishopton Lane

Stockton On Tees

Ocean s/w ltd

Cleveland

Rail! Bldg

TS1 8 1PU

Stanley St

Tel: (0642) 6044470

IJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

Eastwood
Nottingham
NG16 2 AT
Tel: (07737) 64501

Ed

BBC, Dragon, Spectrum,

ZX81

Ad, Ar

BBC, Spectrum, BBC

SERIN S/W
PO Box 163
Slough
SL2 3YY

Tel: (03814) 3180

PSION

2 Huntsworth Mews

Gloucester Place

London

NW1 6DD

Tel: 01-724 7679

Ar, Bs, Do, Ed, Ut
BBC, Spectrum, ZX 81

POLAR S/W
187 Godeston Rd
Oulton Broad
Lowestoft
Suffolk
NR32 3AE

RICHARD SHEPHERD S/W
Elm Hse

23-25 Elmshott Lane

Oppenham

Slough

Tel: (06286) 63531

Ed, St

BBC, CBM 64, Electron
Spectrum

Ar, Ad, Bs, Ed, Do, Ut
BBC, Spectrum, ZX 81

Gm

Oric, Dragon

Bs, Gm

CBM 64, Dragon, Spectrum

SCR ADVENTURES
1 90 Shelbourne Rd
Tottenham
London
N17 9YB

Tel: 01-808 1267

Quicksilva ltd

Palmerston Park Hse
1 3 Palmerston Rd
Southampton
SOI ILL

Tel: (0703) 20169

POPPY PROGRAMS

Richmond Hse

Singleton

Carnforth

Lancs.

LA6 3AN

Tel: (0468) 41291

ROMIK S/W LTD
272 Argyll Ave
Slough
SL1 4HE

Tel: (0753) 71535

Ad

Apple ^CBM 64, Dragon
Spectrum

SEVERN SOFTWARE
1 5 High Street
Lyney
Glos.

GL1 5 5DP

Tel: (0594) 43352

Ad, Ar, Bs, Ed, St, Ut
Atari, Atmos, BBC, CBM
64, Dragon, Electron, Lynx
Memotech, Spectrum, QL,
ZX81

Ad, Ar

Atari, BBC, CBM 64,
Dragon, Electron, Lynx
Oric, Spectrum, ZX 81

Ed

Spectrum, ZX81

POSTERN S/W

PO Box 2

Andoversford

Cheltenham

Gloucester

GL54 5SW

Tel: (04516) 66678

ROSE S/W
148 Widney Lane
Solihull
W. Midlands
891 3LH

Tel: 021-705 2895

Rabbit s/w ltd

The Warren

Unit II

Forward Dr

Wealdstone

HAS 8NU

Tel: 01-863 0833

SHARDS S/W
189 Eton Road
Ilford
Essex
IG1 2UQ

Tel: 01-514 4871

Ad, Ar

Amstrad, BBC, CBM 64
Electron, Spectra video.
Spectrum, VIC 20

Ed

Spectrum, ZX 81

Ad, Ar, St

CBM 64, Spectrum, VIC 20

Saga s/w house

Mitchell Hse
185 High St
Cottenham
Cambs.

PROGRAMS UNLIMITED

Computer Centre

35 Baker Street

London

WIM 1AE

Tel: 01-487 3351

Ad, Ed, Gm, St, Ut
BBC, Dragon, Electron,
Spectrum

SILVERSOFT S/W LTD
London Hse
271-273 King St
London
W6 9LZ

Tel: 01-748 4125

Bs, Ed, Ut

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum

SALAMANDER S/W
1 7 Norfolk Rd
Brighton
E. Sussex
BN1 3AA

Tel: (0273) 771942

PRECISION S/W LTD
6 Park Terrace
Worcester Park
Surrey
KT4 7JZ

Tel: 01-330 7166

Ar, Bs, Ed, Ut

BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum

ZX81

Ad, Ar, Bs, Ed, Si, St, Ut
BBC, Dragon, Electron, Oric

SCISOFT

5 Minster Gardens
Newthorpe

SINCLAIR RESEARCH LTD

Stanhope Rd

Camberley

Surrey

GUI5 3PS

PROTEK COMPUTING LTD

I I l_l I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

•JJ Director!! OIOIOIOI'IOIOICOIOI'IOI'IOIO

i i i wret,or V i i i • i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

rrrrrrrrrrrrri"i“ | "i"ri"i"i _ i"i _ rrrrrr»"rri _ ri

Tel: (0276) 686311

Clifton
Bristol
BSS 2RG

Tel: (0272) 731411

Gm

CBM 64, Spectrum, VIC 20

Ad, Ar, Bs, Do, Ed, St, Ut
Sinclair QL, Spectrum,
ZX81

SOLO S/W
51 Broad St
Worcester
WR1 3LR
Tel: (0905) 58351

Tab software services

37 Westfield Cresc

Wellesbourne

Warwick

SOFTBACKS

PO Box 257

Watford

WD1 3LQ

Tel: (0923) 53482

SOFTWARE FOR ALL

72 North St

Romford

Essex

RM1 IDA

Tel: (0708) 60725

Bs, Do, Gm

Dragon, Sharp, Spectrum

TANDATA MARKETING
Albert Rd North
Malvern, Worcs
WR14 2TL
Tel: (06845) 68427

Do, Ed
Atmos, Oric

STAINLESS SOFTWARE

10 Alstons Road

Stockport

Cheshire

SK4 5AH

SOFT CENTRE

Renvyle Cottage

Okehurst Lane

Billingshurst

W. Sussex

RH14 9 HR

Tel: (040381) 4715

TANSOFT
Unit 1-2

The Techno Park
645 Newmarket Road
Cambridge

Tel: (02205) 226123

STARCADE
2 Elworthy Ave
Halewood Green
Liverpool
l ?6 7AA

Tel: 051-487 0808

Ed

BBC, Spectrum

SOFTEK INTERNATIONAL
LTD

12/13 Henrietta St
Covent Garden
London
WC2E 8LH

Tel: 01-240 1422/7877

Ar, Si

Atari, BBC, CBM 64
Electron

TASMAN SOFTWARE
1 7 Hartley Crescent
Leeds
LS6 2LL

Tel: (0532) 438301

SULIS S/W LTD

4 Church St

Abbey Green

Bath

Avon

BA 1 1NL

Tel: (0225) 61929

Ad, Gm, Ut
Atmos, BBC, CBM 64
Electron, Dragon, Oric,
Spectrum

BS, Ed, Ut
BBC, Spectrum

SOFTWARE INVASION

56 El borough St

Southfields

London

SW185DN

Tel: 01-870 1197

SOFTEL
5 Durwood
Drive

Glen Rothes
Fife

KY6 2LB

Tel: (0592) 756723

Ed

BBC - Model B, CBM 64,
Dragon, Spectrum

SUNLAND S/W

204 High Street West

Sunderland

Tyne & Wear

SRI 1VA

Tel: (0783) 75732

Ar

BBC, Electron

Ad

Spectrum

SOFTWARE MASTERS
30 Lincoln Rd
Olpon,

Birmingham
827 6CA

Tel: 021-707 7544

SOFTSEL COMPUTER
PRODUCTS
Softsel Hse

North Feltham Trading Est

Central Way

Feltham

Middx.

TW14 0X0
Tel: 01-844 2040

Ed

BBC, Electron

SUPERIOR S/W
69 Leeds Rd
Bramhope
Leeds

Tel: (0532) 842741

Ad, Ar, Bs, St, Ut
BBC, CBM 64, Dragon,
Oric, Spectrum, VIC 20

mfmm

SOFTWARE PROJECTS

Bear Brand Complex

Allertoo Rd

Wooiton

Liverpool

L25 7SF

Tel: 051-428 7990

Bs, Ed, Gm, Ut
Atari, BBC, CBM 64,
Spectrum, Texas, TRS-80
VIC 20

TECTONIC SOFTWARE
7 Ashley Road
Parkstone
Poole

BH14 9BS

Tel: (0202) 723291

SYMBOL SOFTWARE
PO Box 181
Chester
CHI 3XS

SOFTWARE FARM
155 Whiteiadies Rd

Ut/Technical

Spectrum

Atari, CBM 64, Spectrum
VIC 20

Oxford 0X7 3DJ
Tel: {099386) 249

Tel: 061-973 9580

Gm

Spectrum

Ed, Gm, Ut
Spectrum/ ZX81

TIMELESS S/W

3 Bridgend

Fauldhouse

W. Lothian

EH47 9HF

Tel: (0501) 70326

WlDGIT S/W
48 Durham Rd
E. Finchley
London
N2 9DT

Tel: 01-444 5285

Ultimate play the
game

The Green
Ashby de la Zouch
Leics
LE6 5JU

Tel: (0530) 411485
Ad, Ar

Spectrum, VIC 20

Ed

CBM 64, Spectrum

J. WILLEY & SONS LTD

Baffins Lane

Chichester

W. Sussex

P019 1UD

Tel: (0243) 784531

V&H COMPUTER
SERVICES
Mayfield Hse
Spencer St
Bognor Regis
W. Sussex
P021 1AP
Tel: (0243) 7535

Ad, Bs, Ed, Ut

BBC, CBM 64, Dragon,

Electron, Spectrum, VIC 20

TEMPTATION S/W
27 Cinque St
Rye
Sussex

Tel: (0797) 223642

Bs, Ut

BBC, CBM 64, PET,
Spectrum, ZX81

Ad, Ar, Do, Ed, St

Amstrad, CBM 64, Dragon

Spectrum,

VIC 20, ZX81

VIRGIN GAMES LTD

61-63 Portobello Rd

London

W11 3DD

Tel: 01-221 7535

TERMINAL S/W
28 Church Lane
Prestwich
Manchester
M25 5AJ

Tel: 061 797 3635
(office)

TOMORROWS WORLD
Oric Software Dept,

118 Worcester Rd
Malvern, Worcs
WR14 1SS
Tel: (06845) 62467

Ad Ar Si

BBC, CBM 64, Dragon,
Oric, Spectrum, VIC 20

VISA S/W LTD
9 Mansion Row
Gillingham
Kent

ME7 5SE

Tel: (0634) 813780

Ad, Ar

CBM 64, Spectrum
VIC 20

TOM SHIPMAN SUPPLIES
LTD

PC BOx 406
Brentwood
CM13 3QE
Tel: (0277) 810327

THE GAMEKEEPER
Grand Fare
224 High Street
Erdington
Birmingham
B23 6SS

Freepost B23 5BR
Tel: 021-384 6108

WINTERSOFT
30 Uplands Park Rd
Enfield
Middx.

EN2 7PT

Tel: 01-367 5720

Bs

CBM 64

VISIONS
1 Felgate Mews
Studland St
London
W6 9JT

Tel: 01 -748 7478

BBC, Electron, Spectrum

Ad, St

Atmos, Dragon, Oric
Spectrum

T. SMITH S/W
26 Wesley Grove
Portsmouth
Hants
P03 5ER

AH Ar t

Atari, BBC, CBM 64,
Dragon, Electron, Oric
Spectrum, VIC 20

Ad, Ar, St

BBC, CBM 64, Electron
Spectrum, VIC 20

WYVERN SOFTWARE
2 Princes Bldgs
George St
Bath

BA1 2 ED ^

Tel: (0225) 65747

THORN EMI VIDEO LTD

Upper St Martins Lane

London

WC2H 9ED

Tel: 01-836 2444

Do, Ed, Gm
Atari 400/800

VORTEX SOFTWARE
280 Brookiands Rd
Brooklands
Manchester
M23 9HD

TURTLE S/W
Wynchwood
40 School Rd
Finstock

Ar, Do, Ed, Gm, Si, St
CBM 64, Spectrum

II

®@®@®®®®(T]©®@®@(w)®®(I)

LOOKING FOR A HOME COMPUTER? R

ALL ROADS LEAD TO r

MICRO POWER

0

MEMOTECH MTX500

An excellent choice for both the
beginner and the Spectrum owner
wishing to upgrade.

Features: 32 K, Z80A processor,

SN76489A sound chip (the same as
in the BBC Micro), 256 x 192 graphics
resolution, 16 colours, 32 sprites
(easily programmed moveable objects to make games
writing easier), two Atari-type joystick ports, composite
video socket number pad. Sophisticated utilities to aid
programming include built-in Assembler/Disassembler
and monitor.

Complete with 5 cassettes including Draughts, Toado and
a Head Cleaner.

BBC MODEL B £399

Made by Acorn and usedj
extensively in schools
and colleges.

SPECIAL OFFER:

FOUR FREE MICRO POWER

TAPES (worth up to £39.80)

Features: 32K, BBC BASIC (the fastest on any home
computer), 8 display modes, 16 colours, 640 x 256 high
resolution graphics, 3 voice sound plus noise channel,
RS423 and Centronics printer interfaces, joystick port
built-in Assembler, 10 user definable function keys.

Complete with a 16 program cassette and 512 page
User Guide.

ACORN ELECTRON £199

m

&

[61

0

MEMOTECH MTX512

This computer has
the same specification as the
MTX500, but has 64K RAM
(Random Access Memory).

COMMODORE 64
90^ COMPATIBLE
CASSETTE RECORDER

Features: 64K, Microsoft BASIC,

16 colours, 8 multi-coloured sprites,
sound synthesiser (producing the best
sound on any micro), 320 x 200 graphics

ports, cartridge slot, parallel printer interface.

CASSETTE RECORDERS

(All Recorders have an integral index counter.

Elftone Digicorder (including leads). £25.95

Sanyo DR101 Recorder ... £39.00

Leads for above ... £3.50

Tc! l R o or p d o e w r e a r d l d t r d ESS: riMMclfRtfo

SHEEPSCAR HOUSE
SHEEPSCAR STREET SOUTH
LEEDS LS7 1 AD
Tel: (0532) 434006

SHOWROOM ADDRESS: 1

NOW

Iex-stock

The scaled down version of the BBC Micro.--

Features: BBC BASIC, 32K, 7 display modes (including 80
column text mode and 640 x 256 graphics resolution),
16 colours, 9 octave sound plus noise channel, built-in
Assembler. Complete with an Introductory Cassette
containing 16 programs, a User Guide, and a book.
'Start Programming on the Electron ".

J PRICES CORRECT AT TIME OF GOING

|TO PRESS. ALL PRICES INCLUSIVE OF VAT.

HIRE PURCHASE FACILITIES AVAILABLE.
PLEASE CONTACT US FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

CARRIAGE FREE FOR
BBC AND

ALL OTHER
COMPUTERS.

£5.00

i§

I I I I I I III I I

• T...L j A l~l~l — l”l~l — 1~l — 1 — I

I. . ..LI] _I__*_ , _ l III II III~I _ I - |~|“|”|~| - |

•_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l_l l - l - l~l - l“l~l“l“l ,- l _ l - l _ l~l - l _ l“l~l“l“l~l“l

Machine

Code '64

We continue our "cracking' of this

fascinating code

Last month we looked at
what machine code is.
Now it is time to actually
start using it. As you will
have found using BASIC,
the Commodore 64 is full
of registers, they do
things like change the
border colour, switch
sound on or off and
switch between the test
and graphics screens.
Now while typing in a load
of POKEs may be a real
pain in BASIC it is
something that machine
code is very good at.

the data are numbers to
be loaded into A, rather
than an actual memory
location to be PEEKed
from, varies with the
assembler. The Doctor
Watson type uses the let¬
ter N after the LDA to
specify number. Super-
soft's MIKRO uses the
more conventional for
number. So to say the
machine code equivalent
to BASIC's A = 42, you
enter LDA £42, and the
equivalent of A = PEEK
(42) is LDA 42. It is more
usual, as we explained
last month, to use hex¬
adecimal, the symbol for
hex being a dollar sign.
This makes LDA #=$2A
the same as A = 42,

of memory. One of the
most fundamental
machine code statements
is LDA which stands for
LoaD the Accumulator.
The accumulator is a
special memory location;
think of machine code as
only having three
variables, A, X and Y.
These have some special
functions but for a start
can serve as simple
variables. The Ac¬
cumulator can be loaded
with either a number or it
can take the number from
another location, like a
PEEK. There are more
complicated ways of do¬
ing this but we will save
those for later. The way
the computer knows that

Accumulator loading

The computer spends
its time shuffling data
through its pigeon holes

Machine Code '64

because 2A is the hex for
42. To complement LDA
there are LDX and LDY
commands. The opposite
to LDA is STA. This
stands for STore the Ac¬
cumulator and is an
equivalent of POKE, the
syntax is the same as for
LD and also works on the
X nd Y registers. So a
small routine to set the
border colour to red would
be:

LDA #=$02
STA $D020

You cannot write an
equivalent to A = A+1 in
machine code, but you do
have the ADC instruction.
This stands for ADd with
Carry. Because you can
only count up to 255 in
one byte (one pigeon hole)
and because if you go
over that limit the number
becomes zero, you need a
sort of warning that this
has happened. The carry
flag does this for you, we
will use and deal with this
later. Suffice it to say that
we have the carry to deal
with. When adding we
always want the carry
reset. For this we have the
instruction CLC, meaning
CLear Carry. We have to
have a CLC before every
ADC. Because it is not
possible to add a number
to the X or Y registers we
have commands to just
add one to each of these.
These are the INX and INY
commands standing for
increment X and incre¬
ment Y.

hex. The locations can be
used like line numbers in a
way, but whereas you can
have as many statements
to a line as will fit in
BASIC, you can only have
one byte per location. Dif¬
ferent instructions have
different lengths. INX is
one byte long, LDA#= is
two and LDA is three.
This means that you have
to be careful when
calculating jumps. Like
BASIC, machine code has
a GOTO and an IF. .THEN
structure. The GOTO
lookalike is JMP, this
must be pointed at
another bit of program or
else the whole thing is
likely to crash. There are
several ways of simu¬
lating IF. .THEN, the
simplest being BEQ and
BNE. These test the last
operation for being equal
or not equal to zero, and
then jumping (or bran¬
ching), hence the mem-
nonics BEQ for Branch if
EQual to zero and BNE for
Branch if Not Equal to
zero. Remember that
255+1 =0, so we can
use this to test when
counting both upwards
and downwards.

The last command we
will cover this month is
RTS. This stands for
ReTurn from subroutine
and is similar to the BASIC
RETURN. Although we
are not using a true
subroutine in machine

code we are in effect
simulating one. When we
use the BASIC SYS828 to
call the program we are in
effect gosubbing the
machine code. We are
now armed with enough
instructions to write a
simple program which will
show how fast machine
code is. The job of this
program is to flash the
screen colour and every
255 changes to change
the border colour. This
adds up to over 65,000
POKEs. In BASIC it looks
like this:

FOR X = 828 TO
847

READV:POKEX,V

SYS828

END

DATA 169,0,
162,0,141,32,
208,142,33
DATA208,232,
208, 250,24,105
1,208

DATA 242,96,0

The third program
may be written in BASIC
but all it does is to fill the
pigeon holes and then run
in machine code. With the
second program you will
need to assemble it and
then call it with a SYS
828.

The speed difference
is remarkable: program 1
takes over 20 mins to run
and the machine code ver¬
sions run in .65 of a se¬
cond! that's some im¬
provement. THIS is the
reason that games need
machine code.

10 FORA = 0TO255
20 POKE53280,A
30 FORX = 0TO255
40 POKE53281 ,X
50 NEXT X
60 NEXT A

in machine code, using
the Commodore or MIKRO
assembler:

LDA #=$00
LDX #=$00
BORDER STA
$D020
SCREEN STX
$D021
INX

BNE SCREEN
CLC

ADC #=$01
BNE BORDER
RTS

Memory locations

Machine code does
not have line numbers, it
uses memory locations.
The Dr. Watson assem¬
bler asks you where you
want to put your pro¬
grams. MIKRO assumes
the cassette buffer unless
you use a * = to specify
a different location.The
cassette buffer is fine for
small programs, it starts
at 828 decimal or $033C

Or in BASIC to be POKEd
in as machine code

SOFTWARE BY POST

ZX81

49er

Pilot

Seawolf

Kongs Revenge

ZX SPECTRUM

Fighter Pilot
Trashman
Psytron
Blade Alley
Jet Set Willy
Codename Mat

BBC

Fortress
Mr Wimpy
Dare Devil Dennis

VIC 20

Jetpac
Chariot Race
Flight 015

orders with attached form.

£5.95

ORIC

Frigate Commando

£6.50

£5.95

Mr Wimpy

£6.90

£3.95

Marc

£6.95

£3.95

Harrier Attack

£6.95

Hobbit

£14.95

£7.95

DRAGON

£5.95

Hungry Horace

£5.95

£7.95

Chuckie Egg

£7.90

£5.95

£5.95

Flight Simulator

£7.95

£6.95

ELECTRON

Chuckie Egg

£7.90

£7.95

£6.90

Snooker

£8.95

Blagger

£7.95

£8.95

COMMODORE 64

Space Pilot

£7.95

£5.50

Dinky Doo

£7.95

Hunchback

£6.90

£6.95

Killer Watt

£7.95

£5.95

Solo Flight

£14.95

se send S.A.E. for full catalogue. 10% off all

NAME _

ADDRESS

Please supply the following:

TITLE

Qty

Price

Total

deduct 10%
Amount due:

Send to CURTIS COMPUTER SERVICES

Seaton Computer Shop, 51c Harbour Road, Seaton,
Devon EX12 2LX Tel: 0297 22347

TOP

SAVINGS

PRINTERS

EX VAT

INC VAT

BROTHER HR 15

340.00

391.00

TRACTOR

62.00

71.30

SHEETFEEDER

185.00

212.75

KEYBOARD

135.00

155.25

EPSON RX80T

212.00

243.80

EPSON RX80F/T

237.00

272.55

EPSON FX80P/T

324.00

372.60

EPSON MX100F/T

350.00

402.50

EPSON FX100F/T

430.00

494.50

FX80TRACTOR

30.00

34.50

JUKI 6100

335.00

385.25

MANNESMANN TALLY MT 80

199.00

228.85

OKI MICROLINE 80AP

180.00

207.00

OKI MICROLINE 82A

255.00

293.25

OKI MICROLINE 83A

395.00

454.25

OKI MICROLINE 92P

395.00

454.25

SEIKOSHA GP 100A

165.00

189.75

SHINWA CP80

175.00

201.25

STAR GEMINI 10X

182.00

209.30

COMPUTERS

COMMODORE 64

152.17

174.99

COMMODORE 1541 DISK

165.21

189.99

COMMODORE C2N CASSETTE

36.51

41.99

INTFACE 64-PAR EL

59.50

68.43

APRICOT 2*D+MON

1,475.00

1,696.25

APRICOT 10MB

2,395.00

2,754.25

SANYO MBC555

850.00

977.50

EPSON QX10

1600.00

1840.00

MAYFAIR MICROS

362 YORK ROAD, LONDON SW18 ISP
01-870 3255

THE EVESHAM COMPUTER CABINET

Easy to assemble units built to give maximum storage
space for all your computer requirements.

Money back if not
satisfied guarantee

£45.00

Incl. VAT & delivery

You merely bolt together the factory fitted joints. All hinges and catches are pre-fitted

To

EVESHAM CABINETS LTD.

28a CHURCH ROAD, BURGESS HILL
WEST SUSSEX RH15 9AE

Please supply me with a EVESHAM COMPUTER CABINET.

Name ..

Address .

SALE SALE

I.B.M.

GOLFBALL PRINTERS
SALE PRICE £39.99 + VAT

INTERFACE EXTRA

5” Monitor (New). £40.00 + VAT

Keyboards. from £4.00 + VAT

Mini Cassette Drives. £20.00 + VAT

Centronics Printers (New)from £175.00 + VAT

PCB’s, FANS, POWER UNITS, ETC.

COME AND LOOK AROUND

P & R COMPUTER SHOP

Salcote Mill, Goldhanger Road,
Heybridge, Maldon,

Essex.

Either enclose payment (payable to EVESHAM CABINETS LTD.)
or charge to Credit Account. Ticked

□ ACCESS ---

□ VISA ACCOUNT l 1111 _

□ PLEASURE CARD (Tick if application form required)

PHONE: (0621) 57440

HOURS: MON-FRI 9am-5pm SAT 9am-12am

Personal Computing Today July 1984

75

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I i I I I I • i I I I I I

i “rrrrrrrrr«“ri"rri"rrrrrrrr«:ri

i >orcuiore i”i i i i i § i i i

Minefield

Sapper Sid to the rescue in this game of

skilful manoeuvring by Derek Waldron.

Sapper Sid has been
left in charge of a group of
men whom he must guide
back to safety. Unfor¬
tunately all the fields bet¬
ween him and home are
mined and he is in charge
of the one remaining mine
detector. Even more un¬
fortunate is the fact that
the detector is not 100
per cent reliable. It will
warn him when there is a
mine within one step of

Minefield is a game that
requires a certain amount
of luck with a measure of
skill if you are to reach a
'decent' score.

his present position, but it
won't tell him in which
direction. Armed with this
knowledge, he (you) has
to find his way safely

across each of the fields
he comes to.

He does have one
trick up his sleeve which
quite often proves in-

IJJJJJJ.IJ.MJJJJJJJJ I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

II I I I I I I I I l“l“l"l“l”l“l“l“l“l“l“l“l”l”l"l”l”l”l“l“l“l“|”|“|

High score

Used to determine frequency in audible
detector warning

High frequency and low frequency for
sound effects

valuable, namely a mine
detonator. This device,
when used, will detonate
all the mines that are cur¬
rently being 'detected' by
the mine detector. The on¬
ly drawback of this device
is that it may only be used
once in any field.

Sapper Sid starts each
field in the bottom left
corner and must find his
way to the top left corner.
The first field contains ten
mines and five more are
added every other field.
To get a high score, I
recommend that as many
of the earlier fields be
cleared as possible, as the

later fields become a pure
test of survival!

If the number of lives
remaining is getting low,
it usually proves best to
try and complete the field
to obtain an extra life.
Also, if you find that you
can complete a field
without having to use the
detonator, go back and
use it where it will give
you the most points. You
cannot carry an unused
detonator into the next
field. Instructions to play
the game are contained
within the program, in¬
cluding which keys to use
for movement.

75-100

1 10-230
260-620
650-662
700-716
750-766
800-810
850-862

Initialise variables and read data
for sprites and tune.

Set colours of sprites. Set
multicolours for multicoloured
sprites.

Print title page.

Instruction pages.

Sub-routine for detonation.
Sub-routine to move man up.
Sub-routine to move man down
Sub-routine to move man left
Sub-routine to move man right

Used in read statements to read data for
tune

.1000 Sub-routine to print 'MINEFIELD'.

1 01 0-1 040 Sub-routine to print warning

signpost.

1 1 50-1 1 80 Sub-routine to fill in safe square .

1 200-1 240 Sub-routine to print explosion.

1 250 Sub-routine to print score.

1 300 Sub-routine to print lives left.

1 400-1 430 Sub-routine to update mine
detector.

1 500-1 590 Print field boundary and set

variables to values required at the
start of each new field.

1 600-1 660 Place mines at random positions
within the field.

1 700-1 750 Accept input for movement.

1 760-1 780 Check if any lives are left or if

field has been completed. If not
another key input is requested.

1 900-1 930 Sub-routine to produce audible

warning when a mine is detected.
2000-2030 Sub-routine to produce explosion

noise.

21 00-21 60 Sub-routine to play tune when
field is completed.

3000-3210 End routine when all lives have

been lost.

5000-5550 Data for sprites.

5560-5570 Data for tune.

Lines 712, 762, 808 and 858 are too long to get
on one line as printed, and all basic keywords
should be abbreviated as shown on page 1 30
(Appendix D) of the CBM User Manual. It is also
necessary to remove all spaces in the line,
including the one between the line number and the
start of the line.

Line(s)

10-50

variables used

Used in read statements for reading sprite
data

Current field number

Lives left counter

Mines left counter

Set to start of SID (sound) chip

Used in FOR NEXT loops

Set to start of video chip (for control of

sprites)

Used to represent the current position in
the field in the array which holds informa¬
tion concerning the field
Detonator flag. Used to check if detonator
has been used

Used to determine where in the screen and
colour memory maps should be poked to
turn a 'safe square' green

I I I I I I ! I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 1

rrrvj." rr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrfv

g -,-| minefield i i § § §

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt

11

i mm s

I I

i mm •

I I

i mm c

1 i

MC

Mine count for number of mines to be plac¬
ed in field

SC

Score

MX)

x and y co-ordinates for man (necessary for

my(

positioning of sprite)

XX (

x and y co-ordinates for explosion sprites

XY '

A$ )

Strings containing information to print
'MINEFIELD' in title

B$ (

C$ (

D$ )

N $

String containing name of current high
score holder

K$ (

Used in GETK$ statements

H(1 3) )

Arrays containing high and low frequencies

L(1 3) 1

and duration of notes for the tune

D(1 3) (

Array representing the field. Contains infor-
i mation concerning mine positions, and is

A( x,y)|

referred to whenever a change of cir-
[ cumstances arises (e.g. whenever the man
moves)

hints on conversion

Reversed S

Reversed R
Reversed -
Reversed Q
Reversed 0
Reversed
Reversed

Owing to the use of sprites it will not be possible
to convert this program exactly as it runs on the
CBM64 for the majority of other home micros.
However, the principle behind the working of the
program should be easy enough to adapt if the
working of the program is understood.

Reverse video characters within quotes after a
print statement wil be one of the following:
Reversed heart Clear screen and place cursor at
to left

Place cursor at top left (without
clearing screen)

Inverse video on
Inverse video off
Cursor down
Cursor up
Cursor right
Cursor left

Other reversed characters change the current
colour of the 'pen'. 53280 and 53281 control the
colour of the border and background respectively.
Any address POKEd which contains a V is
connected with the use of sprites. Any address
POKEd which contains an S is connected with
producing sound.

The POKE instruction in line 1 1 70 POKEs a
solid coloured square directly at the screen and
may be replaced with an appropriate PRINT AT
instruction. The POKE instructions in lines 1410
and 1420 POKE a solid coloured square directly to
the screen, either red or green depending on the
state of the mine detector (true or false return from
the detector sub-routine).

The workhorse of the program is the array
A(x,y). All values are initially set at zero. A value
of 1 is placed in any position determined to
contain a mine. This is later cleared either by the
use of the detonator (if in range) or by the man
'stepping' on that square. A value of 3 is placed in
any position 'visited' by 'Sapper Sid', which then
reduces the workload of some of the sub-routines.
A(1,1) represents the bottom left square, and
A( 1 0,8) represents the top right square, and are
never mined for the sake of fairplay.

CBM Graphics

in print statements so that
these functions can be ex¬

One of the most com¬

ecuted within a program.

mon queries received by

For example it is possible

PCT regarding listings for

to position the cursor or

the CBM64 concerns the

clear the screen using the

symbols that are used for
graphics. Here are some
tips to help you under¬
stand them.

relative symbol with the
quotation marks. The
following list shows the
symbols and the keys that
generate it (don't forget

The 64 allows you to

specify control keys, etc.

the quotes).

a clear screen -

shift+clr/home

a HOME CURSOR -

CLR/HOME

.« CURSOR DOWN -

CURSOR DOWN KEY

n •- UP

up •- •-

M ' LEFT ~

LEFT ■" •'

II RIGHT -

RIGT •"

1 BLACK

CTRL + 1

4 WHITE

+2

r* RED

•-••• + 3

k CYAN

" +4

M PURPLE

+5

ii GREEN

" +6

BLUE

" + ?

!i! YELLOW

+ 8

SI REVERSE ON

■' •' + s

S REVERSE OFF -

+0

a ORANGE

C= + 1

K BROWN

C= + 2

0 LT RED

C= + 3

fl GREY1

C* + 4

ill GREY2

C= + 5

II LT GREEN

C* + 6

a LT BLUE

C* + 7

Si GREYS

C= + 8

program fisting

0 REM********************************

1 REM** **

2 REM** MINEFIELD **

3 REM** **

4 REM** BY D. WALDRON **

5 REM** **

6 REM********************************

18 P0KE53281,0 POKE53280,6: V=53248 : S=542?2
20 PRINT ,, ^H»®W?I»*»M»iiiiWHflNG ON A JIFFY."
25 DIM AC11,9>:DIMH<13> =DIML<13>=DIMD<13>

NEXT

NEXT

NEXT

NEXT

NEXT

NEXT

NEXT

NEXT

30 FORT=0TO62 : READA : POKE12288+T,A = I
32 FORT=0TOS2:READA = POKE12352+T,A• I
34 FORT=0TOS2 = READA:POKE12416+T, A : I
36 FORT=0TO62 = READA:POKE12480+T,A = I
38 FORT=0TO62:READA = P0KE12544+T,A = I
40 FORT=0T062:READA = POKE12608+T,A : t
42 FORT=0TO62 = READA = POKE12672+T,A = I
44 FORT=0TO62:READA = POKE12736+T,A : I
46 FORT=0TO7=POKE2040+T,192+T:NEXT
48 FORT*1 TO13:READHI,LO,DR : H<T> =HI=L <T)=L0 = D CT>=DR = NEXT
50 HS=0 : N#=" "

75 PRINT"."]"

80 F0RT=39T042:POKEV+T,1:NEXT

82 POKEV+43,5 = POKEV+44,7:POKEV+45,7:POKEV+46,7 : POKEV+28,240
84 POKEV+37,0•POKEV+38,10

90 POKEV, 45 • POKEV+1,60 = PQKEV+2,69 : POKEV+3, 60 : F'OKEV+4,45 = PQKEV+5, 81

100 POKEV+6,69 = POKEV+7,81

110 H*= N/l I K I I— I— I I I r\ "

120 B*= I I I I M I - I - I I - I I I "

130 C$= I III ll—l I I— I— L-S "

140 D$=

IB

WM

:

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

I I I I I I I I I I I I,

program fisting

1 I f I I I I i I 1

130 PRINT "S?M?I?I?I?I*M*r : GOSUB1000

200 PRINT"Hi»M»»i»iiNtOTFRESS 'I' FOR INSTRUCTIONS,"

210 PRINT 11 TO PLAY. "

220 GETK*:IFKf=""THEN220
230 IFK$="P"THENGOTO1500

260 POKEV+21,0:PRINT" IT':GOSUB1000 = GOSUB1010
270 PRINT"NSTRUCTIONS"

280 PR INTTAB <17 ) "-"

290 PR I NTT AB < 12)" *iiTHE OBJECT OF THE GAME IS TO"

300 F'R I NTT AB <12) " HGUI BE VOUR MAN FROM THE"

310 PRINTTRB<12>"BOTTOM LEFT OF THE FIELD, TO"

320 PRINTTAB<12) “TITHE TOP RIGHT CORNER."

330 PRINT"3WTO HAMPER YOU IN YOUR QUEST, THE FIELD"

340 PRINT"MHAS BEEN SEWN WITH MINES. YOU HAVE A"

350 PRINT"MlINE DETECTOR WHICH INDICATES WHEN A"

36@ PRINT"MilNE OCCUPIES fl SQUARE NEXT TO YOU, BUT"

370 PRINT"nilT DOESN'T INDICATE IN WHICH DIRECTION."

380 PRINTTAB<8)"SEPRESS 3SPACES TO CONTINUE"

390 GETK$=IFK$<>" "THEN390
400 PR I NT " 3" : GOSUB 1000 = GOSUB 1010

410 PR I NT " S*M*I*M?M" TAB <12 > " SiUSE THE FOLLOWING KEYS TO "

415 PRINTTRB<12 )"MOVE. "

420 PR I NTTRB (12)"« W.UP "

43@ PR I NTT AB < 12 V M Z.DOWN "

440 PR I NTTRB Cl 2 VW A .LEFT"

450 PR I NTTRB < 120 "3fl S.RIGHT"

460 PR IN TTAB < 12 > " MSP ACE.DETONATE "

470 PR I NTTRB < 8 ) " MMiPRESS SSPACE" TO CONTINUE"

480 GETK$:IFK$<>" "THEN480
490 PRINT" IT :GOSUB1030 = GOSUB1010

500 PRINT"aMMMMMMSI"TAB<12>"iiTHE DETONATE FUNCTION WILL"

510 PRINTTRB<12>"DESTROY ANY MINES ON SQUARES"

520 PRINTTAB < 12)"TNEXT TO YOU, BUT MAY ONLY BE"

530 PRINTTRB<12)"ITJSED ONCE PER FIELD."

540 F‘R I NTT AB < 12 ) " MMTfr’OU START WITH 5 LIVES, AND"

550 PRINTTAB <12)"WILL NEED EVERY ONE OF THEM!"

560 PRINT"niSCORING DURING THE GAME IS AS FOLLOWS:-"

570 PRINT"HkDETONATE A MINE.5 POINTS"

580 PRINT "HFIND A SAFE SQUARE.10 POINTS"

590 PRINT "(COMPLETE FIELD.50 POINTS + EXTRA LIFE"

600 PR I NTTRB < 10 > " flUF'RESS SBPACEH TO PLAY"

610 GETK$ ; IFK$<>" "THEN610

620 GOTO1500

650 IFDE=0THENRETURN

652 IFA<X+1, V) = 1THENXX=MX+23:M=M-1:SC=SC+5:DE=0:A <X+1,V>=0:GOSUB1200
654 I FA X-1, V ) = 1 THENXX=MX-23: M=M-1 : SC=SC+5 •' DE=0: A < X-1, V ) =0: GOSUB 1200
656 XX=MX

658 I FAC*!, V+1) = 1 THENXY=MV-23: M=M-1 : SC=SC+5 : DE=0: A < X, V+1 ) =0: GOSUB 1200

660 IFA<X, V-1) = 1THEHXY=MY+23:M=M-1:SC-SC+5:DE=0:A<X,Y-1)=0:GOSUB1200

662 XY=MY:POKEV+21,16:GOSUB1250:GOSUB1350:GOSUB1400=RETURN

700 IFY=8THENRETURN

702 Y=V+1 : FP=FP-120 : FX=FF'

706 F0RT=MYT0MY-23STEP-1:FORTX=1T05:NEXT:POKEV+8,MX:POKEV+9,T:NEXT:MY=T:XY-MY
708 I FA < X, V ) =3THENG0SUB 1400: RETURN
710 I FA < X, V ) <> 1THEN716

712 GOSUB 1200 : L=L-1 : M=M-1 : SC-SC+5 : GOSUB 1250 : GOSUB 1300 : GOSUB 1350 ■' FORT= 1TO500: HEX
T:POKEV+21,16
714 IFL=0THENRETURN

716 GOSUB1150:SC=SC+10:GOSUB1250:GOSUB1400:A <X,V)=3 : RETURN

750 IFV=1THENRETURN

752 Y=V-1 ■' FP=FF'+120: FX=FP

756 FORT=MYTOMV+23:FORTX=1T05:NEXT:POKEV+8,MX:POKEV+9,T:NEXT:MV=T:XY-MY
758 IFA< X, V >=3THENG0SUB1400:RETURN
760 IFA < X,Y)01THEN766

762 GOSUB1200:L-L-l : M=M-1:SC=SC+5:GOSUB1250:GOSUB1300=GOSUB1350 : FORT=1TO500:HEX
T:POKEV+21,16
764 IFL=0THENRETURN

766 GOSUB1150:SC-SC+10 : GOSUB1250 : GOSUB1400=A<X,V)=3:RETURN
800 IFX=1THENRETURN
802 X-X-l : FP=FF'-3: FX=FP

804 FORT—MXTOMX-23STEP-1 = FORTX-1T05: NEXT: POKEV+8, T : POKEV+9, MY NEXT ■' MX=T = XX-MX

805 IFA<X,Y>«3THENGOSUB1400:RETURN

806 I FA <X,V)01THEN810

808 GOSUB1200:L=L-1:M=M-1:SC-SC+5:GOSUB1250 : GOSUB1300:GOSUB1350:FQRT-1TO500 : NEX
T:POKEV+21,16

809 IFL-0THENRETURN

810 GOSUB 1150: SC-SC+10: GOSUB 1250: GOSUB 1400 •' A< X, Y )=3 : RETURN
850 IFX=1©THENRETURN

852 X-X+l=FP-FP+3=FX-FP

854 FORT-MXTOMX+23 = FORTX-1T05 = NEXT:POKEV+8,T:POKEV+9, MV:NEXT:MX=T:XX=MX

855 IFA < X,Y>-3THENG0SUB1400:RETURN

856 IFA <X,V ) 01THEN862

858 GOSUB 1200: L=L-1 : M=M-1 : SC-SC+5: GOSUB 1250: GOSUB 1300 : GOSUB 1350 : FORT-1TO500 : NEX
T:POKEV+21,16
360 IFL-0THENRETURN

862 GOSUB1150” SC-SC+10:GOSUB1250 = GOSUB1400:A < X,Y)=3:RETURN
1000 PR I NT AT : PR I NTB'T : PR I NT C$ : PR I NTDf: RETURN

1010 PRINT "WOWS *HIHHI ^IIISIIR ■ H *11111111

1020 PR I NT "HUS "llllllll :**mLJff*I?I*M?I?ir*ll *11 *11 *11 *si "

1030 PRINT"3SI?I?I?I?I*M*I?I*M?I?lJiiS KinillllllL'X/xn ■■■■■■■Iv"HK/X/ 1

1048 PRINT"lllllllllL xHi nRHRHRRRIi_HI_" :POKEV+21,15 RETURN

1150 FORF1-FXTOFX+2

1160 F0RF2-F1TOF1+80STEP40

1170 P0KEF2,224:POKE< F2+54272 >,13

1180 NEXTF2, F1 •' RETURN

1200 FORT =10TO14STEP2 = POKEV+T,XX:NEXT

1210 FORT=11TO15STEP2:POKEV+T,XV:NEXT

1215 GOSUB2000

1220 FORTX-1T05:POKEV+21,128:FORT-1T050 = NEXT:POKEV+21,0:FORT-1TO10 = NEXTT, TX
1225 FORTX-1T05:POKEV+21,64:FORT-1TO50 = NEXT:POKEV+21,0:FORT-1 TO10:NEXTT, TX
1230 FORTX-1T05:POKEV+21,32:FORT-1TO50 = NEXT:POKEV+21,0:FORT-1TO1 0■ NEXTT, TX
1240 GOSUB2030 : RETURN
1250 PR I NT" 371*1*1*1" TAB < 30 ) SC : RETURN
1300 PR I NT " MIHMMMMMMMM" TAB < 30 )" ill! L: RETURN

1350 PR I NT " ^*I*M?M*I?I«BlflI*I?I*M*3" TAB < 30 ) " IRRI" M : RETURN

1400 IFCA<X-1,V) = 1)OR<A<X+1,V) = 1)OR<A<X,V-1 )=1)OR<A<X,Y+1>=1)THEN1420
1410 FORT-1898T01899:FORTX-TTOT+40STEP40:POKETX,224:POKETX+54272,5:NEXTTX, T•RET
URN

1420 FORT-1898TO1899:FORTX-TTOT+40STEP40:POKETX,224 = POKETX+54272,2:NEXTTX,T
1430 GOSUB1900:RETURN

1500 POKEV+21,0:PRINT"3"; : P0KE53231,9:POKE53280,9 : FP-1904:MX-24:MY-220

1505 FX-FP:XX-MX:XY-MY : DE-1

1510 FORX-0TO11:FORY-0TO9 ; A<X,V>=0:NEXTY,X

1515 F-F+l ; IFFX201 NT<F/2 ) THENMC-MC+5

1580 PR I NTTRB <31 ) "WWkDETECTOR"

1590 GOSUB1250:GOSUB1300 = GOSUB1350:GOSUB1150
1600 FORT-1TOM

1605 X=INT<10*RHD< 1)>+l: Y=INT<8*RHD< 1 ) )+l

1610 IF < < X-1)AND < Y=1))OR < <X-10)AND < Y-8 ))THEN1605

1615 IFR<X,Y)=lTHEN1605

1620 A<X,Y)=l:NEXT:X=1:V=1

1650 POKEV+21,16:POKEV+8,MX:POKEV+9,MY

1660 GOSUB1400

1700 GETK# : IFK$=""THEN1700

1710 IFKf=" "THENGOSUB650:XX-MX:XY-MY

1720 IFKf="W"THENGOSUB700

1730 IFK$="Z"THENGOSUB750

1740 IFK$="A"THEHGOSUB800

1750 IFK$= "3 "THENUUSUB850

1760 IFL-0THEN3000

1770 IF< X-10)AND < Y-8 )THENL-L+1:SC-SC+50:G0SUB21@0:GOTO1500
1780 GOTO1700
1810 END

1900 FORT-0TO24:POKES+T,0:NEXT

1910 POKES+14,64:RQKES+18,16:POKES+3,8:POKES+24,129:P0KES+6,248:POKES+4,65
1915 FR-7389

1920 F0RT-1T025:FQ=FR+PEEK<S+27)*14 : HF=INT<FQ/256>:LF-FQ-HFR256
1930 POKES,LF:POKES+1,HF:NEXT:POKES+4,65:POKES+24,0:RETURN
2000 FORT-0TO24:POKES+T,0:NEXT

2010 POKES+5, 0 : POKES+6,252:POKES+12,0:POKES+13,252:POKES+24,15

2020 POKES+1,1: POKES, 45: POKES+4, 129 ■' POKES+8, 2 = POKES+7, 102 : POKES+11,129: RETURN

2030 POKES+4,128:POKES+11,128=RETURN

2100 FORT-0TO24 = POKES+T,0 = NEXT

2110 POKES+5,18 = POKES+6,227 = POKES+24,4 = POKES+4,33

2120 FORT-1TO13

2130 POKES,L<T>=POKES+1,H<T)

2140 F0RTX=1TGD<T>= NEXTTX, T
2150 POKES+6,234=POKES+4,32
2160 FORT-1TO1500 = NEXT = POKES+24,0 = RETURN

3000 FORTX-1TO20 = POKEV+21,16 = FORT-1TO50 = NEXT = POKEV+21,0 = FORT-1TO50 = NEXTT,TX
3010 FORT-1TO1500 = NEXT = PRINT"3"= P0KE53281,11= POKE53280,11
3020 IFSOHSTHEN3100

3022 PRINT"MHDDikCURRENT HIGH SCORE' 1"HS
3024 PRINT"»*M PLAYER: a «H*

3030 PR I NT" SDSDSWM" TAB < 8 > " !IWHO" S GOT BIG FEET THEN?"

3040 FORT-1TO4000:NEXT = PRINT"SMS"TAB<9>"Mrt)U HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE"

3050 PRINT"S"TAB<9)"TO BEAT THE HIGH SCORE."

3060 PRINT"WHKWI"TAB<4>"3«I0ULD YOU LIKE ANOTHER GO? <V/N>"

3070 GETK*=IFK$=""THEN3070
3080 IFK*="Y"THENPRINT"3"=GOTO3210
3090 IFK$<>"N"THEN3070
3095 END

3100 PRINT":«W*Wk£URRENT HIGH SCORE: B"HS
3110 PRINT"*>»M PLAYER: i"N$

3120 IFFL-1THEN3200

3130 PR I NT " MMKMKT]" TAB < 11)" WELL DONE. YOU NOW"

3140 PRINT"M"TAB<11>"HOLD THE TOP SCORE."

3145 PRINTTAB<8^

3150 INPUT"MMHSENTER YOUR NAME";Nt
3160 IFLEN(N$)>10THENN$=LEFT$<Nt,10)

31 70 H<3=^C

3180 FL-1 : PR I NT "71" : GOTO3100

3200 FL-0:FORT-1TO4000:NEXT = PRINT"3"

3210 P0KE53281,0:POKE53280,0:GOTO145

4999 REM TITLE SPRITE DATA ***

5000 DATA0,0,0,16,50,79,24,66,82

5010 DATA24,130,68,20,131,196,60,130,68

5020 DATA34,122,68,33,2,36,0,0,0

5030 DATA0,0,0, 0,0,0, 0,6,3

5040 DHTA0,6,7,0,31,15,0,31,159

5050 DATA0,1,255,0,0,255,0,0,113

5060 DATA0,0,51,0,0,63,0,0,63

5070 DATA162,4,96,34,132, 160,34,197,0

5089 DATA34,197,0,34,165,16,18,157,240

5090 DATA12,128,16,0,0,16,0,0,16
5100 DATA0, 0, 0,0,0,0,192,56, 0

5110 DATA240,48,0,248,96,0,253,248,0

5120 DATA255,176,0,255,0,0,198,0,0

5130 DATA206,0,0,254,0,0,126,0,0

5140 DATA0,0,63,0,0,63,0, 0,31

5150 DATA0,0, 31,0,0,63,0,0, 51

5160 DATA©,0,98,0,0,67,0,2,195

5170 DATA0,7,129,0,7,128,0,1, 128

5180 DATA0,0,0,0,0,0,16,128,4

5190 DATA25,132,133,25,136,197,22,136,197

5200 DATA20,136,169,16, 73,25,32,73,0

5210 DATA62,0,0,60,0,0,248,0,0

5220 DATA252,0, & ,254,0,0,246,0,0

5230 DATA19,48,0,241,240,0,224,192,0

5240 DATA192,64,0,0,112,0,0,96,0

5250 DATA0,0,32,0,8,64,240,136, 64

5260 DATA1,136, 128,225,72, 128,1,40,0

5270 DATA1,16, 0,249,1,128,0, 0,0

5279 REM *** MAN SPRITE DATA ***■

5280 DATA©,40,0,0,170,0,2,255,128
5290 DATA0,255,0,0,60,0,10,170,160

5300 DATA42,166,168,170,170,170,162,166,138
5310 DATA162,170,138,162, 166,138,161,85,74
5320 DATA194,170,131,242, 170,143,2, 130, 128
5330 DATA2,130,128,2,130,128,2,130,128
5340 DATA2,130,128,1,65,64,5,65, 80

5349 REM EXPLOSION SPRITE DATA ***

5350 DATA16,17,16,85,17,20,89,21,101
5360 DATA25,101,165,26,109,153,26,238,152
5370 DATA86,234,168,93,154,166,31,150,154
5380 DATA23,150,104,87,182,176,5,191,189
5390 DATA9,190,244,10,246,208,10,230, 192
5400 DATA1,238,192, 0 ,254,192, 0 ,255,192

5410 DATA0,223,0,0,219,0,0,235,0
5420 DATA64,16,16,16,16,64,4,16,64
5430 DATA1,0,65,80,32,4,15,168,16
5440 DATA 14,159,0,25,159, 64,27, 169,97
5450 DATA93,109,165,87,93,117,39,222, 148
5460 DATA6,158,212,1,151,208,1,234,208
5470 DATA?:, 249,192,0,121,0, 0,122,0
5480 DATA0,28,0, 0 ,28, 0, 0 ,56,0
5490 DATA0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
5500 DHTA0.0.4.0.0.16.1,0.0
5510 DATA64,65,1,16,4,4,4,0,16

M-MC

PRINT"ir I I I I I I I I I ~i"
PRINT-.T!" : FORT-1T07: PRINT: PRINT: PRINT" Jl
PRINT"M*I_ I I I I I I I I I Jfl"
PRINTTABC31) ",T13C0RE:«MMMI"

F'RINTTAB<31) "*I*I«n.IVESMMIHH"

PRI NTTAB< 31) " MMMM11NESMMUHII"

1517

1520

1530

1540

1550

1560

1570

DATA1,0,64,16,16,0,0,81,64

DATA65,151,144,7,159,145,7,158,144

DATA?:, 1 ?0, 192, 67,235, 192, 16,251,4

DATA0,57,0,6,40,0, 0 ,40,0

DATA12,56,300,7,86,150,8,86,150,9,86.

DATA12,56,135,11,26,135,12,56,135,11.

5520

5530

5540

5550

5560

5570

READY.

■■IB

ELECTR

...this is the add-on you have
been waiting for. j
A switched joystick int epp me
for the Electron user.

4#

<ry o

Plug in cartridge design
Attractive tougn plastic casing
Reliable positive-fit connectors
Compatible with all "Atari-style
9 pin joysticks
Does not interfere with
keyboard operation
12 month guarantee
Supported by leading software
houses

User programming details
provided

1 extends the versatility of your
Electron computer

STOP PRESS - “FREE Game
Conversion Program to allow use
with existing software ’

First Byte Computers,
10, Castlefields,

Main Centre, Derby
DEI 2PE Tel: Derby
(0332)365280

A Genuine First Byte Add-on

<r_<*

DRAGON, BBC, SPECTRUM DEALERS

BBC B Computer 1.2 O.S.

£399.00

1.2 ROM

£8.00

Tatung RGB Monitors

£247.00

Microvitec Monitor

£247.00

Sanyo Green Monitors

£97.00

Disc Drives from:

£199.00

Joysticks (Pair)

£17.90

Wordwise Word Processor

£39.00

View Word Processor

£59.00

Acorn Electron (Phone Availability)

All connectors, plugs and sockets for BBC, ribbon cable, discs j

C.20 C.15 C.12, cassettes etc. in stock.

Centronics Printer Cable (BBC & Dragon)

£12.90

R.T.T.Y. Program for BBC B

£7.50

R.T.T.Y. Circuit Board including instructions

£6.30

R.T.T.Y. Eprom Version

£20.00

Computer Dust Covers

£3.00

Star Gemini 10X Printer incl cable

£275.00

CP80 Printer (Inc. Cable)

£230.00

Printer Cable (BBC or Dragon 32)

£12.90

Epson RX80, FT, FX80 (Phone availability)

DRAGON SERVICE CENTRE

Dragon 32

£150.00

| Dragon 32 Disc Drive (Inc. Controller)

£275.00

Joysticks (pair)

£14.90

ZX Spectrum 48K

£129.00

ZX Spectrum 1 6K

£99.90

Wide range of software for BBC, Dragon 32, ZX Spectrum etc.

Please send SAE for full list. Post and package on small items £1.

All available mail order. Access and Visa. 24 hour phone. All prices

include VAT at 15%.

S P ELECTRONICS

48 Linby Road, Hucknall, Notts NG15 7TS.

TEL: Notts (0602) 640377

9»

°§
LU <

C/5

j= o
<o
o

Q W

LLl

UJ

is

LU

H CD

05 \—
05 O
05 LU

n

05 O
CD

dco
< tr

^ O
05 H

THE ORIGINAL “SINCLAIR” SPECIALISTS

HELP

WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO BUY OUR
STOCK OF FORMER TOP-TEN SPECTRUM,
BBC AND COMMODORE GAMES, SOME AT

HALF PRICE

(OR LESS)

NEW - DIFFERENT - USEFUL
SOFTWARE AND ADD-ONS NOT USUALLY
FOUND IN OTHER SHOPS

NOW IN STOCK

-0 I
D >

Z 33

m ^
J3 >
05 xi

m

< >
D Z
CO

C/> >

o

z °
Zj m

m w

5i

O m
m 05
05 -

~ n

* O

55

05 ^

O 5
§ z

J3

K >
m O
S m
O 3

V rn

^ CO
m O
x c
"0 z

1°
5 °

O x

r

VISA - ACCESS - AMERICAN EXPRESS - DINERS CLUB
Open Tues.-Sat. 10.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. (closed Monday)

80

Personal Computing Today July 1984

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

! Popular Programming

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.-.-rrr,-rrrr

Popular

Programming

PCT is always on the look out for good

programs to publish. Here are some hints
on how to get your work in print.

Ail of the programs
published in Persona!
Computing Today are
written and submitted by
readers. This method
works well — not only do
we provide the spring¬
board for your entry into
the world of programming
but other readers are
given the opportunity of
sharing your ideas and of
having fun. St is profitable
for you too! We pay good
rates for the work we
publish enabling you to
expand your computer
system and open up the
way to greater programm¬
ing power!

Popular

computers

While we like to cover
a wide range of home
computers, space is
limited and we have to
give preference to the
most popular computers
owned by our readers.
So while it is pleasing to
see an excellent real-time
adventure for the Atom, it
would have such a limited
appeal among our reader-
ship that publication
would not be justified.
Thus, we would prefer a
simple well-written pro¬
gram for the ZX Spectrum
for example.

Program assembly

Remember that your
program will be seen by
many thousands of peo¬
ple, some of whom will be
beginners to computing.
So, keep the program sim¬
ple. Multi-statement lines
may be more efficient in
terms of memory needed
but the program will be
easier to follow (and de¬
bug) if the line holds one
command rather than
twenty. This makes it
easier to trace the "SYN¬
TAX ERROR IN 100".

REMS are invaluable

but they must explain
clearly what is going on.
For example: 5010 AN =
C(A + I):REM GOTTIT! is
not as helpful as 5010
AN = C( A + I): REM PUT
ANSWER IN AN. This
does not mean that you
have to stick to a rigid
PASCAL-type structure,
which is often as hard to
follow and is inefficient.
Structure code where it
helps and use sensible
names for the variables
used.

We like to include
detailed notes on how to
convert programs to run

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I • I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

rrr z~~r~ « ~ r ~ ~ ~ n.7 ~rrrwrri“ri"i“i“i"i“i“i“ri

i i i Popular Programming |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|“i“|-|-|-|-|“|-|-|

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

Table 1 Showing how to REM control codes for the VIC 20 and CBM 64

REM C ELK 3
PRINT "a"

REM EUHT3
PRINT" sP
REM [RED]

PRINT"S"'REM POUND

REMCCVN3

PRINT"

REMCPUR]
i PRINT"Si"
i REMCORN]
i PRINT "Si"
i REMCBLU3
i PRINT "3"

I REMEVEL3
) PRINT "HI"

I REMCRVS ON] 1

) PRINT" Si" 1

i REMCRVS OFF] I

I PRINT"*" ■

> REM[COM 13
i PRINT'M3"
i REMECOM 23
t PRINT"!!"
i REMECOM 33
i PRINT "SS"
t REMECOM 43
i PRINT"B"
i REMECOM 53
j PRINT"53"

j PRINT"!"’ |

i REMECOM 73 M
i PR I NT "3"

i PRINT";!"’
i REMECRSR UP3
1 PR I NT "H"
i REMECRSR DOWN]
i PRINT"M"

i REMECRSR LEFT] A
) PRINT"II" m

i REMECRSR RIGHT]
i PRINT"M"

I REMECLR3
i PRINT "IT 1

i REM [ HOME 3
:i PR I NT" S3"

ii REM.. .COMBINING S
I REMECLR3E3 CRSR D
t PR I NT " rMBiSSSFHflTS

on other machines, so
that any reader interested
in the program can make
an attempt at running it on
his/her own machine.
Bear this in mind when
writing the program and
while making full use of
the capabilities of the
'base' micro try to view
your program in terms of
how it can run on other
machines. Please include
detailed documentation
on how it may be con¬
verted. You will be paid
for this as well as for the
program itself and the bet¬
ter it is the more likely we
are to accept the program.

Give a description of
the function of every
variable. Lines such as
GET A$:IF A$ = "" THEN
90 may seem obvious to
you but it may be double
dutch to some readers
and should therefore be
expanded. Also give a
detailed line by line ac¬
count of what each major
section of the code is do¬
ing. This is particularly
helpful to people who do
not know the 'base'
micro's BASIC but who
are competent enough to
convert it to their own
machine.

A good package

If possible, type all
text in double spacing
with a 1 " margin on each
side of the paper. Along
with the hints on conver¬
sion, line annotation and
list of variables, don't
forget to send an in¬
troductory section ex¬
plaining what the program
is about and how to use it.

Always send the
documentation and a
cassette of the program in
a well padded envelope
(Jiffy bags are ideal for
this) and label each part of
the package with your
name, address and
telephone number, the

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri - 1

ivriVMjjj’riVmVivrrrrrijjjjjjjj

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrri-rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

name of the program, the
machine it runs on and the
memory required. Since
we often change the
name of the program it
would be helpful if you
could keep the program
listing free of your own
title. You can still, of
course, include a REM
statement with your
name.

Every program we
receive is looked at

carefully with a view to
publication in a future
issue of the magazine.
Testing the submissions
takes some time, so while
you will receive an im¬
mediate acknowledge¬
ment of receipt, be patient
as it may be some time
before we can notify you
of our decision. Always
keep a copy of the pro¬
gram so that if we need to
contact you about any

problems you have the
program to hand.

If we think the pro¬
gram is up to our usual
standard we will write to
you accordingly. The
copyright in such works
which will pass to Argus
Specialist Publications
Limited will be paid for at
competitive rates. This
means that you will not be
able to publish the pro¬
gram through any other

media and for this reason
we cannot return your
cassette of the program.
If, however, we cannot
accept the program for
publication for any
reason, we will notify you
of this decision and return
your cassette and docu¬
mentation. Should this be
the case, don't be dis¬
heartened. Go back to
your micro and have
another go.

Notes for specific micros

State memory size, 1 6K or 48K.

Do not make program auto run.

Try to explain UDGs in REMS.

Save more than one copy on the tape

Oric I and Atmos

Always state memory size.

SAVE programs at SLOW speed.

Send more than one copy of each program on
the tape.

State memory size.

State type of recorder used (old 410, new
410 or 1010).

Save several copies on tape.

Do not LIST "C:".

State memory size and any expander
cartridge required.

REM POKES (e.g. sound and user defined
graphics extensively).

Try to avoid long strings of control chracters
Insert a REM, as shown, above lines using
control characters to explain what they do.

1. Use a BASIC program which reads and POKEs
data.

2. Use a checksum.

3. We will not print disassemblies but sufficient¬
ly commented source code may be used.

General points on
non-protection

Do not rely on any BASIC extensions e.g.
Simon's BASIC or BC BASIC.

If you move screen memory of POKE sound,
REM the procedures thoroughly.

Use checksums to ensure details such as
sprite data are OK.

REM control codes as for the VIC (see Table

Do not auto run.

Do not disable or trap Break, Stop or ESCAPE
keys.

It is not necessary to protect your program so
do not cause the program to NEW or delete
itself when ending. Programs which do this
wil have the subroutine removed.

BBC/Electron

Summary

1. Include an introduction, line by line annota¬
tion, list of variables used and detailed hints
on conversion, and of course, a cassette of
the program.

2. Take note of the instructions for specific
machines.

3. Label all parts with your name, address and
telephone number and package the parcel
well so that bits do not go 'astray' in the
post.

4. Sit back and look forward to seeing your
name in print. Then get to work on another
submission! Good luck, we look forward to
seeing your work.

Try to keep to "legal" calls
Do not use embedded mode 7, CHR$ as they
cannot be printed. Use the CHR$ function
instead.

State which operating system and BASIC is
necessary and if relevant, which DFS and
version.

Try to check the program on an Electron.
Save at 1 200 baud or on 40 track disks.

Try to check if it will work on a BBC
negative INKEYS may not.

Save at 1 200 baud.

some

ASP SOFTWARE

In case of difficulty, Order
from: Argus Press
Software Group,

W1R 3AB

and allow 14 da
for delivery

111 ®

I I I I I I I I I I i I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri“rrrrrr

Testbed

Disk drives are an important peripheral to

vim .— 1 1 -— 11 1

home computer users. We explain what
they do and put some through their paces.

These are exactly the
same as floppy disks ex¬
cept the diskette is fixed
inside the drive and is
rigid. Due to the superior
quality, a hard disk allows
much higher storage
capacities. They usually
have 1 00 to 400 TPI and
can store tens of millions
of characters. As you
would expect you have to
pay for this power, they
start at about £1 000.

Tape loops

The more recent ad¬
vances in technology have
given tapes a new lease of
life. The more famous of
these is the Sinclair
Microdrive. This uses high
quality video tape which
is arranged so that it is
wound in an endless loop.
This means that when the
tape is read, instead of be¬
ing wound on to a second
reel, it is fed back to the
centre of the original reel.
The data is recorded in the
same way as conventional
tape, one BIT (Binary
Digit, as the characters
are converted into base 2
first) at a time. The other
difference is that the tape
motor runs much faster to
allow faster data access
speeds. These speeds
may result in reliabilty pro¬
blems and tape wear. The
microdrive is designed for
the Sinclair Spectrum and
retails for £50. Read on
for a test reort of this
system.

A very new com¬
petitor in this area is the
Phloopy data storage
system. This also uses the
endless loop method, but
instead of using reels the
tape is allowed to form
natural loops within the
casing. The Phloopy
system uses a nine track
recording head, this
means that data are
recorded one byte

Anybody who regularly
saves and loads programs
to and from tape storage
will know the inconve¬
nience of waiting (and
wasting!) ten or so
minutes for data transfer
to be completed. It is
frustrating to have at your
fingertips an ultra-fast
electronic brain, capable
of carrying out mammoth
calculations in fractions of
seconds, only to be held
back by slow subsiduary
procedures. Such a
method of data transfer
can also be unreliable.

However, cassette
data storage is cheap and
most owners of micros
already possess at least
one cassette recording/
playback system. Even if
they do not, a suitable one
can be purchased for less
than £30 (unless you own
a Commodore machine, in
which case you will need
to spend about £50 for a
dedicated data recorder).

disk drives. The data are
stored on diskettes which
are basically circular pat¬
ches of magnetic tape
with a hole in the centre.
They are enclosed in a
flexible envelope, hence
the name floppy disk. Like
a record, a disk has
"grooves" in which the
data are stored. These are
called tracks. Unlike a
record these tracks are
not visible, and are paths
taken by the disk head on
the magnetic surfaces.
The more tracks on a disk
the more storage space
there is available. Most
floppies have between 48
and 100 TPI (Tracks Per
Inch). Therefore an 80
track dirve can store twice

as much as a 40 track
drive. The new generation
of disks are 3" disks.
These are the same as
floppies except that the
envelope is rigid making
the disk more durable and
ideal for use in schools. At
the moment these drives
ae slightly more expensive
and non standard, but the
price should go down as
demand increases and
more companies start to
support them. You could
pick up a 5 %" drive for as
little as £ 1 50, if you shop
around, these prices are
going down all the time so
keep tuned to the adverts.

A more powerful and
expensive storage
medium are hard disks.

On disk

Disk drives are fast,
reliable and falling in
price, bringing them into
the range of home com¬
puters users. All makes of
home micro can now be
interfaced to a system
quite simply. The
cheapest and most widely
used are 5 %inch floppy

: :

T 0C |k.j 11 ii • II 111111 rrrrrrrrrri

111111 111 11 i rrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
111 rrrrrrri - rrrrrrrrri”rrrri

(character) at a time,
which enables more
storage in the 12 foot
long tape strip. This
allows the tape to run at
slower speeds, not much
faster than a normal
cassette, which means
high reliability and less
tape wear. As the Phloopy
system is so new it has
yet to be proved and is
totally non standard. It is
designed to run on a BBC
Micro (which requires an
interface for £26 + VAT
which includes its own fil¬
ing system), but versions
for other machines are
also promised in the near
future. The Phloopy
system itself retails for
£99 + VAT.

A disk drive allows
direct access to a par¬
ticular program on file. It
is therefore quicker to
reach your goal than with
tape cassette systems.
Disk drives are also more
reliable and allow the user
to make back up copies
quickly and easily in case
of corruption of files
stored. Thus the advan¬
tages of disk drives over
cassette tape storage are
obvious.

Another consideration
is the price of the disket¬
tes or tape cartridges.
Whereas the tapes and 3 "
diskettes cost around £5,
the floppy diskettes sell
for as little £2 . When buy¬
ing any of the described
devices it is advisable to
stay with the standard
system for your micro, as
only that system will cer¬
tainly be supported.

Unfortunately, one of
the most useful purposes
of a disk drive would be to
have all your favourite
programs on one disk so
that they may be loaded
quickly but this is normal¬
ly not possible. The ef¬
forts of software com¬
panies to minimise piracy
has meant that innocent

people who just want a
copy of a program sup¬
plied on cassette put onto
disk may not load from
cassette and then save
due to the inbuilt protec¬
tion in the program. Also,
producing software on
disk is more difficult to
protect and the cost of the
disk has to be included,
thus putting the cost of
the software up. So if you
do decide to move onto
floppies, for goodness
sake don't trade in your
cassette recorder when
you do so!

Testbed has taken a
look at some disk and con¬
tinuous loop systems. The
reports on performance
follow.

COMMODORE
64 DISK
STORAGE

There can be few owners
of CBM 64s who do not
own a cassette player
suitable for this popular
computer. Indeed, the
majority of software
available comes on this
convenient medium. Vir¬
tually all of these owners
must be frustrated by the
slowness of the data
transfer. The Commodore
system is particularly
slow in comparison with
the likes of Sinclair and so
on but it has the advan¬
tage of being more reliable
overall. Incidentally, the
reason for this is that the
CBM cassette system was
designed for the 8K Pet.
On this machine you
would only be likely to
load up to 6 K of program
at any one time which
would take about 4 mins
— a lot less time than
loading 48K of your
favourite adventure pro¬
gram!

It therefore follows
that the question of a flop¬
py disk drive will quickly

arise to owners of CBM
machines. For the CBM
64, there are really only
two methods to consider.
Firstly, the CBM 1541
disk drive which is
specifically designed for
the CBM 64 and connects
directly to it, and secondly
connecting any IEEE disk
drive via an IEEE interface.

CBM 1541 disk
drive

This is by far the
cheapest of the two
methods and the most
popular but it does (of
course) have drawbacks.
The 1541 is a smart, low
profile unit which corn-

small percentage of disk
space, the data using
the majority. The 1541 is
a reliable piece of equip¬
ment but users of it
should note that saving
programs using the
command 'save
filename",8' has been
known to cause corrup¬
tions. Therefore a routine
such as the following
should be used instead:

63899

end

63900

openl ,8,1 5 :f$ = "file¬
name" :f 1$ =f$ + ".bak"

63910

printE 1 ,"sO:";fl$ :go-
sub63980

63920

printE 1 ,"r0 :",fl$ = ";

gosub63980

63930

savef$ ,8 :gosub63980:
end

63980

get£ 1 ,a$ :printa$ ;:ifa$
chr$ (1 3 )then 63980

63990

return

plements the physical ap¬
pearance of the CBM 64
nicely. It is a single drive
unit with a capacity of
1 65K which is more than
adequate for the average
home use. Indeed, most
people do not write
enough programs in one
year to fill one disk. In
practice, most disks are
only partly filled, mainly
due to the inconvenience
of finding a program on a
disk containing up to 1 50
directory entries. In
business applications, the
programs take only a

and should be called by
run63900.

The 1541 is readily
available at £200 + VAT
from your local computer
shop who will probably
throw in lots of free soft¬
ware with it. Flopefully,
this software will include
a utility for copying part of
or a complete disk. This is
the major drawback with
a single drive unit of
course. Backing up a disk
can mean swapping
source and destination
disks several times which
is time consuming and

ij_rrrrrijj rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri-rr,

irrrrrrrrrrrr.jj-rrrrrri-rrrrrrrrrrrr.

Lrrriirrrrrrrrr.-.-.-r.-rr.-.-rrrr.-rr-i-r,-,

tedious and eventually the
user gives up this practice
which he will regret heavi¬
ly when his most impor¬
tant disk goes down.

IEEE interface

The second option is
to buy an IEEE interface
such as the Interpod
which retails for £ 1 00 +
VAT and then to buy any
of the Commodore IEEE
disk drives. Officially the
only drives available from
Commodore are the 8250
— 2 Megabyte of twin
disk drive and at £895 +
VAT, no more need be
said, and the SFD1001
which is an 8250 cut in
half costing £495 +

VAT. This gives the
Megabyte of storage in a
single drive unit thereby
having advantages over
the 1541 in terms of
capacity. Speed increase
over the 1541 is not
significant with any of
these drives as any addi¬
tions to the CBM 64
through the serial bus
must automatically be
limited by the speed of
this bus.

The ideal drive to use
with the IEEE interface is
the 4040. All Com¬
modore twin disk drives
such as this model have
proven reliability (not say¬
ing it is good or bad — just
proven) and hold their se¬
cond hand value remark¬
ably well. The 4040 pro¬
vides the advantage of
twin drives making
backups quicker and
easier. This speed in¬
crease is due to the
operating system inside
the drive. The program¬
mer can send a com¬
mand to copy the whole
of drive zero to drive one
and there will be no data
transfer to the CBM64
(save for the reporting of
error messages) thus
enabling the drive to work

at full speed. All Com¬
modore drives have a built
in controller like this,
meaning that adding a
drive to your system in¬
volves no memory penalty
(unlike other home com¬
puters). The retail price of
a 4040 was £695 + VAT
and although it is officilly
"discontinued" by Com¬
modore, you may still be
able to get hold of a new
one. In any case, I do not
know of any Commodore
drives that have had to be
scrapped so there must be
a lot of second hand ones
out there somewhere.
Another advantage of the
4040 is that is compatible
with the 1541. That is to
say that disks created on
one model may be read by
the other. In theory,
writing to a disk created
by the other model is
possible but this will
almost certainly lead to
disk corruptions and is
therefore not be recom¬
mended.

Information about
Commodore disk drives is
available from: The Com¬
modore Information Cen¬
tre, 6 75 Ajax Ave,
Slough, Berks. SL1 4BG
or telephone (0753)
79292.

SINCLAIR ZX
MICRODRIVES

The ZX Microdrive is a
tape storage system
specifically designed for
the Sinclair Spectrum. Up
to eight can be hooked up
to the Spectrum via an in¬
terface that also acts as a
link to a printer and to
other Spectrums. The
drives themselves are
slightly smaller than the
Spectrum power supply
and have a hold in the
front to accept the tape
cartridges (and dust).
Each cartridge, which is

the size of a match-book,
can hold in excess of 85 K
of data on a continuous
loop. The amount of data
varies depending on the
quality of the tape and
how much has to be
masked out because it
may not store data pro¬
perly.

The first thing one
tends to notice when get¬
ting used to the drives are
the long winded com¬
mands that are needed to
access them. Instead of
the usual 'LOAD "title"
where "title" is the pro¬
gram name, you have to
type, ' LOAD* "m";
"title" ', where * "m"
signifies microdrive and
"n" is a drive number
from 1 to 8. The SAVE
and VERIFY commands
change accordingly, and
some new commands are
added to the BASIC, for
formatting a cartridge, ob¬
taining a catalogue of
what is on the cartridge
and erasing an unwanted
program.

In use, the system is
quite reliable and com¬
pared to the normal
loading speed of the Spec¬
trum, it is very fast, with a
transfer speed of about
1 6 K a second. This time is
usually slowed down
because of the access
time. i.e. the computer
scans the whole tape until
the program is found,
which can take up to 7
seconds. What it boils
down to is an average
loading time for a program

of about 10 seconds.

The drives are meant
mainly for program
storage but do have the
provision for handling
data files, but as you
would expect from any
tape storage, this is quite
slow. All in all, the
Microdrive is an ideal
system for the home en¬
thusiast who would like
an increase over the
speed of cassette storage,
without having to spend
hundreds of pounds.

Sinclair Microdrives
retail at £49.95. The In¬
terface 1 costs £49.95
and blank cartridges are
£4 .9 5 each. The Interface
2, which allows the use of
joysticks, costs £19.95.
For further information
contact Sinclair Research,
23 Motcomb St, London
SW1 X 8 LB or telephone
01-235 9649.

CUMANA 40
TRACK SINGLE
5 'h " VS BYTE
DRIVE 500,

40 TRACK 3 "
DRIVES

After spending £95 for a
disk interface for the BBC
Micro, you would want to
make sure you get the
best drive for your needs.

In this article we compare
a Cumana 40 track single
5%" disk drive with a
Byte Drive 500, a 3" 40
track drive.

rr

r§'

r r
rr

.I- 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 . 1 -*- 1 .
■J Testbed J-J-

tytyttvy

iiiiiiii

rrrrrrrr

rrrrrrri

rrrrrrrr

111 1111111111111
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

The first thing to note
is the Cumana drive
comes with a disk inter¬
face, only the connecting
cables are included in the
price. The Cumana drive
has an integral power sup¬
ply, and a heat sink sits
nicely on the back to
dissipate the heat. The
Byte Drive has its power
supply separate to the
main unit. The Acorn Disk
Filing System was used
for both tests, but I can¬
not see any reason why
any other filing system
could not be used instead.

The Cumana drive
was standard Teac slim¬
line disk drive. Included in
the price was a system
disk which provided the
user with formatting the
verifying utilities. A disk
has to be formatted using
the formatter before it can
be used. The one supplied
worked perfectly and
even had graphics and
sound effects built in. The
verifier was straightfor¬
ward and just went
through the disk checking
for any errors. The manual
was very full and served
its purpose.

The drive itself was
the new Teac slim line
model and had a cream
coloured casing to match
that of the BBC's. The
drive door was closed by
turning an elongated knob
down from a horizontal to
vertical position. The door
does not close if the drive
is empty. At first I thought

the drive door was
broken, but this becomes
useful as you always
know when there is a disk
in the drive. The drive ran
smoothly and was
reasonably quiet, alth¬
ough the sound of the
head stepping in and out
can be heard in a quiet en¬
vironment.

The Byte Drive is col¬
oured matt black and is
square in shape. As it was
designed to be used with
a variety of computers it
cannot really match any
of them in design. The
drive performed perfectly
and I found it was fully
compatible with the
Acorn DFS. A formatter is
part of the package — it
comes on the special 3"
diskette.

Both drives have a 40
millisecond track to track
access time (this is the
time taken for the disk
drive head to move to the
next track), and both
drives also have a max¬
imum of 1 00k storage per
disk. The second side of
the 3" diskette can also
be used on the Byte Drive,
effectively giving 200K
storage per diskette. Only
one side of the diskette
can be used with the
Cumana drive. The Byte
Drive uses a special 3"
diskette which may be
hard to get hold of, and
each one costs around

£5. The Cumana can use
any 5 14" floppy diskette,
and these are readily
available costing less at
about £2 each.

The main disadvan¬
tage of the Byte Drive is
the price of the diskettes.
Another main downfall is
the lack of software
available on 3" format,
and it seems unlikely that
the software companies
will cater for it unless it
has phenomenal sales.
The Cumana drive on the
other hand is very stan¬
dard and their use has
been tried and tested for
the past six years. The
Cumana drive also has 40
tracks which is the most
popular format on the
beeb and all disk software
will be compatible. If you
decide that you are not in¬
terested in any commer¬
cial software, then a Byte
Drive would be useful if

you upgrade to another
machine as ITL Kathmill
produce interfaces for a
number of computers,
where only the cable has
to be changed.

Cumana Disk Drives
reviewed cost £169 in¬
cluding leads and manual
and further information is
available from Cumana
Ltd, Pines Trading Estate,
Broad St, Guildford GU3
3BH or telephone (0483)
50321.

The Byte Drive 500
System for the BBC is
available as a special offer
package at the moment.
This costs £ 1 90 plus VAT
and includes the Inter¬
face, cable, manual and
Zap software. Further
details from ITL Kathmill
Ltd, The Old Courthouse,
New Rd, Chatham, Kent
ME4 4 QJ or telphone
(0634)815464/409433.

There’s only one thing wrong with the
ZX81. Its keyboard.

Or rather its lack of one.

Since it’s flat your fingers don’t feel as if
there’s any response to the pressure put on
the keys.

_ L \

ZX81KEYS FILESIXTY KEYS

In other words, you’re not quite sure
which keys you've pressed until the screen
actually tells you.

Our new, improved push button keyboard
changes all that

It matches the ZX81 perfectly. And the
keys give a real calculator-type feel.

To set it up all you have to do is peel off the
adhesive backing and stick it on top of the
ZX81 touchpad.

Because no tampering or soldering is
involved the guarantee is not affected. And it
will last for up to 3 V 2 million operations.

But our keyboard doesn’t just come
loaded with features. With it comes a separate
overlay and a set of coloured stick-on labels to
make game playing easier.

It’s yours for the original price of £9.95.

Whichever way you look at it, we think
you’ll agree that it’s a keyboard that’s quite
outstanding.

Orders to Filesixty Ltd., FREEPOST, London W9 2BR.

Cheques/PO made payable to Filesixty Ltd.

Please send me_(qty.) Keyboards at £9.95 each

(including VAT and P&P).

Total £

Filesixty Ltd., 25 Chippenham Mews, London W9 2AN, England.Tel: 01-289 3059. Telex: 268 048 EXTLDN G 4087.

Personal Computing Today July 1984

89

Reference

Hardware

Factfile

Factfile is our guide to buying a microcomputer. We
have included all computers which cost less than
£500. In order to help you through the decision com¬
puter jungle, we have put the most important specifica¬
tions for each of the micros into a clear format so you
can see at a glance which one has the features you are
looking for. The layout also makes it easier to compare
different manufacturer's machines without having to
wade through the reams of brochures supplies by
them.

Factfile sorts it all out for you! Just look down the

price index to discover what is available in your range
and then consult the facts given for each. The section
is presented alphabetically.

Since most peripherals are made to interface with
lots of different micros, we have not included informa¬
tion as to whether the micro's manufacturer produces
items specific to the machine. Various Printers, disk
drives etc. will be reviewed in our add-ons section
throughout the year. Specific information can be ob¬
tained by contacting the manufacturer directly.

FACTFILE PRICE INDEX

MICROS UNDER £500 {prices given in chart are
recommended retail. For average selling prices
see under machine!

more than
£300

BBC Model B
Spectravideo
SV328

£ 100-200

Atari 40 0
Atari 600XL
Atari 800
Atmos

Enterprise 1 28K

Sharp MZ700
Spectravideo
SV31 8

Spectrum 1 6 K

Electron

Enterprise 64 K

Spectrum 48 K

ATARI 400

RAM: Stands for Random Access Memory and it is in there to accept
the user's programs. Amount of memory is measured in "thousands of
bytes" or "K" ie, 8 K. A byte is a computer 'word' or single piece of in¬
formation, made up of eight 'bits' which are just 1 or 0 . Hence you need
thousands of bytes to store a reasonable size program, since each let¬
ter, number, full stop, comma, line number, etc, uses up computer
'words' quite rapidly.

As a guideline - you can get about 50 program lines into 1 K and
250 into 8K. This is a rough estimate - don't take it literally! The
figures are not straight multiples, because you need to allow the
machine space to work on your listing, once you've typed it in.

Atari Int. (UK) Inc
PO Box 407,
Blackhorse Rd,
London SE8 5 JH

ROM: Read Only Memory. The machine can look and see what is stored
in the memory, but it cannot alter the contents, nor store anything new.
Generally used for control programs, where the micro consults the
memory to see what to do next at various points in the program.
Languages, such as BASIC, are stored in ROM and allow the machine to
interpret what you type in, in terms of its own 'machine code'.

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?

Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

1 6 K

24 lines of 40 characters
Serial output, BUS connector
No
Yes
8 K

SIZE OF BASIC: The number of bytes occupied by the BASIC language
is important, as it is an approximate guide to the BASICs versatility. The
more powerful the language, the easier it should be to use.

BUS CONNECTION: A socket on the micro which allows it to be linked
up to various add-ons. This can take the form of many various items, ie,
expansion box, printer, disc drives, plotting device. In short a BUS is an
information 'window' through which the micro communicates with the
outside world.

ATARI 600XL

Atari Int. (UK) Inc
PO Box 407
Blackhorse Road
London SE8 5 JH

SERIAL/PARALLEL OUTPUT: This refers to the manner in which the
micro transmits data to other units. If it puts out information in a long
string, one bit after another, down a single wire or connector, it is a
serial output. Parallel output is where pins or wires carry information
simultaneously and are 'read' together as a block by whatever it is the
micro is communicating with.

VIDEO OUTPUT: an output which will drive a monitor, as opposed to a
TV set, allowing it's use as a screen for the computer.

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?

Display Unit Included?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

1 6K

24 lines of 40 characters
Serial output, BUS connector
No
NO
8 K

£159.99

£159.99

AMSTRAD

Amstrad Consumer Electronics
Brentwood House ^ >

169 Kings Road
Brentwood

Essex CM1 4 4 EF HP 111

ATARI 800

Atari Int. (UK) Inc
PO Box 407
Blackhorse Road
London SE8 5 JH

STANDARD PACKAGE

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?
Monitor Included?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

64 K

25 lines of 20,40 or 80characters
Centronics Parallel printer port
Yes

Yes — green or colour
1 6K

£299, £329 (extra with disk drives)

£229,£329

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?
Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P

Average Price

48 K ■ ^

24 lines of 40 characters
Serial output, BUS connector
Yes
Yes
8 K

I I I I 1 I I I I I I I 1 I I I i 1 i 1 I i I

rr»" u "T.^-r".«r."rri"rrri-rrrrrrrrri-rrri

Horduiore Foctfile

rrrrrrrrrrrrrri-rrrrrrrrrrrrrri“rrrr l

BBC MICROCOMPUTER

Acorn Computers Ltd
Fulbourn Road
Cherry Hinton
Cambridge CB1 4 JN

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?

Display Unit Included?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

64 K

24 lines of 40 characters
Serial output, BUS connector
No
No
8 K

£249.99

£ 249.99

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets

Tape Included?

Usable Domestic TV?

Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

32K

30 lines of 80 characters

Serial and parallel output, analogue

output, printer BUS connection

Yes

Yes

1 6K

£399

£399

ATMOS

Oric Products Int.
Cowarth Mansion
Cowarth Park
London Road
Sunninghill
Ascot SL5 75 E ^

STANDARD PACKAGE

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets

48 K

28 lines of 40 characters

Centronics printer and Oric expansion

connection

No

Yes

1 6K

£170

£170

Tape Included?
Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

AQUARIUS

CGL M5

CGL

Computer Games Ltd,
CGL House,

Goldings Hill
Loughton,

Essex.

COMMODORE 64

Commodore
67 5 Ajax Avenue,
Slough, Berks

64 K

25 lines of 40 characters

BUS, Serial, Video

No

Yes

8 K

£229

£199

ATARI 800XL

Atari Int. (UK) Inc
PO Box 407
Blackhorse Road
London SE8 5 JH

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?

Usable Domestic TV?

Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?

Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?

Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

20 K

24 lines of 40 characters

Parallel

No

Yes

1 K

£149.95

£ 149.95

Radofin
Hyde House
Colindale
London NW9

rri i i i“i i"i“i i i”i”i

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrri

i i i i i i i i i i

;

lllllpl

mi

.

wiamimmiimmmm:/-
■liilllll llliP-

iiiii

gib

P f>

TEXAS TI99/4A

SINCLAIR ZX 81

Sinclair Research,
Stanhope Road
Camberley GUI 5 3 PS

Texas Instruments,
European Consumer
Division,

Manton Lane,
Bedford MK41 7 PA

STANDARD PACKAGE

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets

1 6K

34 lines of 32 characters

ROM pack, BUS connector, joystick

socket

No

Yes

1 4 K

None available

£79

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?
Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

34 lines of 32 characters

BUS connections

Yes

Yes

8 K

£39.95

£ 39.95

Tape Included?
Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

i_i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

iVu.li.TJireJIie"ij"ijViViViVmTrnTri

i i 11111111111# Arrrrrrrrrrrrii®-~rri

ORIC 1

SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM

Oric Products International,
Cowarth Mansion,

Cowarth Park,

London Road,

Sunninghill, Ascot,
Berkshire, SL5 7SE.

Sinclair Research,
Stanhope Road
Camberley, GUI 5 3 PS

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets

1 6K, 48K ^

24 lines of 32 characters

ROM packs, Bus connector

joystick, socket

No

Yes

1 4 K

£99.95, £129.95

£ 99 . 95 , £ 129.95

Tape Included?

Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

SPECTRAVIDEO SV-318 and 328

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?

Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

1 6 K, 48 K
28 X 40 /

Yes
No
Yes
8 K

£99.95, £1 39.95

£ 99 . 95 , £ 139.95

SHARP MZ-70 0

Sharp UK Ltd,
Thorn Road
Newton Heath,
Manchester
Ml 0 9 BE

CK Supplies,

Unit 5 Norside,
Oldmixon Cres,
Weston-Super-Mare,

STANDARD PACKAGE

Memory Size
Screen Size

Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?

Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

STANDARD PACKAGE

318 328

32 K 80 K

40 lines of 24 char. 40 lines of
24 char.

£226

£226

Memory Size (RAM)
Screen Size
Expansion Sockets
Tape Included?
Usable Domestic TV?
Size of BASIC
R.R.P.

Average Price

64 K

25 lines of 40 characters

N/A

No

Yes

28 K

£249.95

£ 249.95

Yes

No

Yes

No

£305

£305

PERSONAL COMPUTING TODAY

Lineage: 40p per word.

Semi-display: £9.00 per single column centimetre
Ring for information on series bookings/discounts.

All advertisements in this section must be prepaid.
Advertisements are accepted subject to the terms and conditions
printed on the advertisement rate card (available on request).

01-437 0699

Send your requirements to:

JANE EDMUNDS

ASP LTD, 1 GOLDEN SQUARE,

LONDON W1

SERVICES

Specially Designed

Cassette Inserts for
Computer Games and
^^^.Programmes

pruur&rvia.

^ For more information

Phone: 061-336 4161

SEND YOUR
ADVERTS TO
PCT

(CLASSIFIED)
1, GOLDEN
SQUARE,
LONDON W1

HARDWARE

SHARP MZ-711

64K Personal Computer

SAVE OVER £39.00 WITH MZITOI
DATA RECORDER PLUS 10 FREE
GAMES

Our special price £247.00
Also Available

MZIPOI 4 colour printer £127.
ITT 14" colour TV monitor

All prices include VAT
FREE DELIVERY
Mail Order. Send Cheque/PO
or quote Access no.
Software from £3.95
Send SAE for lists
HIGNETT’S Computers,
Dept PCT, 71/73 Rocky Lane,
Anfield, Liverpool L6 4BB

ACCESSORIES

INTRODUCTORY OFFER

MULTIPURPOSE WORK STATION
(“COSS 2000”)

CATERS FOR ALL HOME COMPUTERS
TEAKWOOD FINISH

ACRES OF SHELVING FOR SOFTWARE;
MAGS AND ACCESSORIES

STURDY CONSTRUCTION
SIMPLE SELF ASSEMBLY

To Order: Send £39.50 plus £6.00 p&p (delivery 21 days)

To: COSS PRODUCTS, Gorof Road,
Ystradgynlais, Swansea SA19 IDT

Further Enquiries: 0639 842404

(Money back if not delighted)

GOT ANYTHING
TO SELL? WHY
NOT ADVERTISE?

— PHONE
01-437 0699 X338

Quality Cassettes/Disks/Paper

5 x Cl5 Cassettes. £2.60

10 x Cl5 Cassettes. £4.90

5 x C20 Cassettes. £3.00

10 x C20 Cassettes. £5.50

5y 4 ssdd.Diskettes £1.40 each. Listing
Paper (11" x 9.5") 500 Sheets only
£5.00. Labels, Cases & Postage
Inclusive. Cheques, PO’s to:

C & S COMPUTER SERVICES,

144 Sutcliffe Avenue, Grimsby, South
Humberside DN33 1AP.

STAR COVERS

Home Computer Protective Covers,
High grade fabric backed Vinyl in
Maroon, Blue or Cream. Piped
edging to seams. Port flaps for
connected or disconnected cover,
Atari, BBC, A&B, CBM64/Vic 20,
Oric, Dragon, Electron etc. £3.00.
Case cover, Spectrum, ZX81 £1.50.
Please send cheque/PO stating
model and colour required to: Star
Covers, Unit 4 Kenneth St. Ind
Estate, Leeds 11. Tel: 455740.
Send sketch for quote for any
hardware configuration.

ACCESSORIES

DUST COVERS

VIC 20/64, Dragon.32/64, Atari800
(old model)/600XL. BBC A&B,
Elecron Cass. Unit C2N. (old model)
C2N1530 (new model) and Atari
(410/1010) in quality natural vinyl.
Just send £2.95 or £3.95 to include
cassette cover, stating computer
and cassette mode. Cassette cover
£1.50. Spectrum case for protection
or carrying in black padded vinyl
£2.95 to: Allen Enterprises,
Freepost, Dept PCT, Luton, LU2
8BR.

ALL YOUR
CASSETTE NEEDS

Blank cassettes Cl 5 with case 40p
Labels in Blue, White or Yellow, 20
for 36p. Inlay cards in Blue, Yellow
Red, Green, Orange or Purple, 20
for 60p. Library cases 9p each.
Postage on each complete order

60p

Stonehorn Ltd., 59 Mayfield Way,
Barnwell, Leicester. LE9 8BL

BLANK CASSETTES!

TOP QUALITY PROFESSIONAL
BRAND COMPUTER/AUDIQ
CASSETTES AT BUDGET
PRICES

Packed in boxes of 10 cassettes
complete with labels, inlay cards
and library cases. Prices include
VAT post & packing

Length Box Qty Amount
Price
( 10 )

5 min £4.35
10 min £4.90
12 min £4.95
15 min £5.00
30 min £5.20
60 min £5.80
90 min £7.50

Cheque/Postal Order enclosed for £

NAME.

ADDRESS.

PROFESSIONAL MAGNETICS LTD
Dept PCT, Cassette House,

329 Hunslet Rd., Leeds.

Tel: (0532) 706066

UNIT

ONLY

SPECTRUM & ZX 80/1

USERS LOOK THIS
WAY PUT AWAY ALL
THOSE UNTIDY WIRES

With this amazing unit designed by a Spectrum user. Put on a chair, floor,
on your lap. Move it all in one go. Our latest new universal unit accepts most
machines. Send SAE for details.

E. R. Cameron & Sons Ltd., Est 1870
H/O 9 The Vineries, Enfield, Middx.ENI 9DQ

ARE YOUR EYES
WORTH £28

Our optical fibre filter fitted to
monitor screens has been proven to
reduce eyestrain and headaches,
and increase operator comfort.

They are simply installed and
available for all popular monitors
and terminals.

Send details of your VDU and
screen/bezel dimensions, together
with your cheque/postal order for
£28 (to include postage & packing)

to ARIX3, 3 Bellvue Parade,
Bellvue Road, London SW177EB

PHONE
01-437 0699
X338 TO
DISCUSS
ADVERTISING

WANTED

MULTI INTERNATIONAL
CO.

REQUIRE SPECTRUM
PROGRAMS

Our client, one of the most well
known international companies
require new, original programs for
most home computers especially
the ZX Spectrum.

An excellent opportunity to obtain
worldwide recognition. Please
contact:

Mr. R. J. Purssglove,
Market Consultant, 172 Finney
Lane, Healdgreen, Cheedle,
Cheshire. Tel: 061-437 0538

Replies treated in strictest confidence

SELL SOFTWARE

Write or phone now for our current
software list.

We want agents in all areas, to sell
tapes to their friends, associates,
clubs etc.

We offer 20% commission on most
of our lines. Write to:

NEWSOFT, 57 Oxford Street,
Aberdare, South Wales
MAKE MONEY!

Personal Computing Today July 1984

95

SOFTWARE GAMES

FOR SALE

EQUIPMENT

DRAGON/32 BBC MODEL/B
ELECTRON ATARI 400/800 (48K) TRS80
C/C NOW ON COMMODORE 64
747 FLIGHT SIMULATOR

Superbly realistic instrumentation and pitot's view
in lifelike simulation which includes emergencies
such as engine fires and systems failures. This
program uses high resolution graphics to the full to
produce the most realistic flight-deck display yet
see on a home computer. There are 21 real dials
and 25 other indicators (see diagram). Your
controls operate throttle, ailerons, elevators, flaps,
slats, spoilers, landing gear, reverse thrust, brakes,
etc. You see the runway in true perspective. Uses
joysticks and includes options to start with take-off.
or random landing approach. “A real simulation,
not just another game.” (Your Computer Apr. 83).

Cassette £9.95 (PP and VAT included)

D.A.C.C. Ltd. (Dept PCT) 23 Waverley Road, Hindley, Gtr. Manchester WN2 3BN

Replica Blank Firing
Colt 45 Automatic

As used by U.S. army, ideal st
prop with ammo. £5.25.

Carriage 50p

Replica 44 auto
Magnum

The gangsters favourite,
with ammo. £4.35, carriac
50p

Colt Python 357

As used by Police and
screen heavies. £4.45,
carriage 50p.

Ideal for video film making. Mail order only
Send POs or chegues to:
RAZZAMATTAZZ, 80 Selhurst New Rd.,
London SE25

ATARI 400/800, 600/800XL
computers. Are you interested in
cheap high quality games and
utilities. Phone David Sutherland
on 031-337 1547 after 6pm.

VIC 20 plus 8K/16K sports
package, soccer manager, cricket
match, realistic decisions, actual
matches £5. K. Palmer, 59 Old Park
Road, Sheffield S8 7DS.

ATARI 400/800

TRS80 1/3 GENIE I/ll

Arcade and adventure games,
educational and utility pro¬
grams. On tape. SAE for details.
Please state micro.

T. Smith Software (Dept PCT)
20 Wesley Grove, Portsmouth,
Hants PC3 5ER

MAIL ORDER ONLY PLEASE

SOLWAY SOFTWARE

FOR THE TEXAS TI99/4A

SYSTEM TRADER The interplanetary trading game.

CRUISER Will you survive your canal holiday?

GET THE GEESE OFF! 6 screens of increasing difficulty as you try to
chase unwanted geese from your fields?

SPRING-HEELED JACK More birds! This time they’re tryingto wreckthe
bridge you must cross!

CHARLIE AND THE GHOSTIES Not for the faint hearted! Collect rubies
under the constant threat of joining your opponents in the-hereafter!

TUMBLEDOWN TOWER A real-time adventure game in an ancient
tower with a personality complex!

ALL CASSETTES AT £5.55 INC P&P
PLEASE SEND SAE FOR FULL LIST

SOLWAY SOFTWARE

6 Curzon Street, Maryport, Cumbria CA15 6LL
TEL: (0900) 812579

ATARI 400 16K

Sold with a music composer
cartridge, 2 joysticks, a pair of
paddles, and Basic cartridge.

Peter Morgan,

100 Leigham Vale, SW2
01-674 0201

MISCELLANEOUS

Business and Research
Software for ORIC-1

Users of the Timekey Calander
Generator, 300 years, for £2 or
$5 (U.S.) Overseas (inclusive).

Information Products, Orient House,
42/45 New Broad Street, London
EC2M 1QY. Tel: 01-249 4096

THIS SPACE
COULD BE
WORKING FOR
YOU.
PHONE
01-437 0699
X338 TO PLACE
YOUR ADVERT

ALARMS

BURGLAR ALARM Equipment
Please visit our 2,000 sq. ft. show¬
rooms or write or phone for your
free catalogue. C.W.A.S. Ltd., 100
Rooley Avenue, Bradford BD6
1 DB. Telephone 0274 731532.

SOFTWARE

BUSINESS

TI99/4A SOFTWARE Bar graph,
snipper (game), poker (game) for
basic machine. Cassette File
Handling, Floor Planner, Bank
Account etc. In extended basic,
price £3.50 each from B. Jackson,
21 Rowan Way, Newark, Notts
NG24 3AU.

SOFTWARE

EDUCATIONAL

GUESS-WORD for the Lynx.
Educational game for ages-9 to 90.
Send cheque/PO for £4.50 to J. R.
Stanbury, Hollebeke, Little London
Road, Horam, East Sussex, TN21
0BN.

BRAND NEW! METAL

COMPUTER TABLES

HI-- £37.50 each
\ \\ xj carr. £10

li For immediate collection.

Personal callers welcome.

Ideal for COPYING MACHINESand
other office equipment FANTASTIC
VALUE! Offered at fraction of cost
price. Ex-GPO Teleprinter desks,
still in original carton, ready to
assemble. Size 38in. wide, 28y ? in.
deep 27in. high. Finished in pleasing
grey with black top. Protective
enclosed front, one right-hand
drawer and pullout glass writing
flap.

H.C. Briggs (Camping
Equipment) Ltd., (Dept PCT),
88 Forest Road, Walthamstow,
London E17 6JH.

Tel: 01-520 2705

COURSES

COURSES AVAILABLE

Stay Friday to Sunday in one of Worc-
estershires finest Hotels and learn
“Basic” on Commodore 64’s. All rooms
have bath, colour T.V., etc. 14 hours of
instruction from a qualified lecturer,
maximum of 20 people on each
course. 10 computers.

Write for brochure to:
Gainsborough House Hotel,
Bewdley Hill, Kidderminster.
Telephone: 0562 754041

SOFTWARE

APPLICATIONS

COMMODORE 64
and VIC 20 PROGRAM
COPIERS

They copy most cassette based
BASIC, machine code and multi¬
part programs of any size. Both
copiers are written in machine
code. Programs using a range of
protection techniques can be
copied easily. Audio and visual
prompts are used for easy
operation. Full instructions are
contained in the programs.

VIC IMITATOR. £6

IMITATOR 64. £6

Please state which is required and
make cheque/POs payable to IAN
WAITE. Send order to:

IAN WAITE, Dept PCT,

11 Hazlebarrow Road, Sheffield
S8 8AU

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENT — ORDER FORM

When placing your ad, please state classification
required. Min 15 words. 40p per word.

Send to: ASP Classified, 1 Golden Square,
London W1.

Tel: 01 - 437 0699

Name.

Address.

Tel.No.(Day).

Please place my advert in PERSONAL COMPUTING TODAY for.issues commencing as soon as possible

1 .

2 .

3 .

4 .

5 .

6 .

7 .

8 .

9 .

10 .

11 .

12 .

13 .

14 .

15 .

96

Personal Computing Today July 1984

Home Computer - Starter Packs

THE BEST PRICE & ADVICE FOR THE BEGINNER

COMMODORE

COMMODORE 64 £199.00

Disk Drive £299.00

(Inc. £100 FREE Software)

801 Printer £229.00

C2N Cassette Player £44.95

1701 Colour Monitor £229.00

COMMODORE 64STARTER PACK

Commodore 64 + C2N Cassette Player
+ 1 0xCI2 Cassettes + Intro to Basic £259.00

>£>■

COMMODORE 64 BUSINESS SYSTEM

(Worth over £1000 RRP including £100 FREE Software)
Commodore 64 + Disk Drive + Printer + Monitor £799.00

COMMODORE SX 64 PORTABLE £895-00

Inc. over £200 Software - Easy Script, Easy File, Future Finance, High Efficiency.

\

BBC

BBC Econet
Also Available ,

MODEL B £399.00 Disk S/S £179.00 Disk Interface £100.00

TORCH DISK PACK £839.00

Z80 PLUS Extra 64K RAM - includes £1000 FREE Software

BBC STARTER PACK £449.00

Model B + Cassette Player & Lead + 3 Games Cassettes

ELECTRON

NEW FROM ACORN-
AVAILABLE NOW!

SINCLAIR

ZX SPECTRUM 16K £99.95
ZX SPECTRUM 48K £129.95
ZX Printer £39.95

SPECTRUM STARTER PACK

48K Spectrum + Cassette Player
+ 10 x Cl2 Cassettes
+ 3 Games Cassettes £179.00

BUSINESS SYSTEMS IBM, COMMODORE, DIGITAL, APRICOT

PERIPHERALS

14" Colour Monitor £249.00
100K Disk, single £179.00
200K Disk, twin £359.00
800K Disk £499.00

12" Green Monitor £99.00
Epson FX 80 £435.00
Epson RX 80 £325.00
JUKI Daisywheel £439.00

VAST RANGE OF SOFTWARE, BOOKS,
GAMES CASSETTES FOR COMMODORE,
BBC, ELECTRON, SINCLAIR etc From
Gemini, Imagine, Anarog, Ocean, Acornsoft,
Bugbyte, Commodore, VICSoft, Psion etc...

ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT

E^f SINGLE or QUANTITY EXPORT orders welcome. NO VAT. Experience of exports

I worldwide - full documentation.

TERMS. U.K. - Payment with order. Overseas - Cheque in sterling drawn on British Bank. Carriage - Please check for carriage.

■i V I I 1 4 (0424)437875

CASTLE ELECTRONICS Dept.PCT.

7 CASTLE STREET, HASTINGS, E.SUSSEX

Our Sister Company SOUTH EAST COMPUTERS, is No.1 in the South for Business Systems

i

PLEASE MENTION

PERSONAL COMPUTING TODAY

WHEN REPLYING TO ADVERTISERS

AD INDEX

Acorn Computers .10, 11

Anirog.IFC (IFC supplement)

Anco .40

Apex...40

Akhter.55

Audiogenic IBC (IBC supplement)
A.P.S.84

Buffer.80

British Micro.17

Castle .97

C.C.S.29

Cheetah Soft.57

Curtis Computers .75

Compusound.40

Dorling Kindersley.58, 59

Dragon Data.42, 43

Evesham Cabinets.75

Electronequip.15

File Sixty.

.89

First Byte...

.80

Micropower.

.72

Mayfair Micros.

.75

Microdeal.

....OBC

P&R Computers ....

.75

R&R Software.

.48

Ram Electronics ....

.60

Supersoft. (OBC supplement)

Sinclair.

...... 41

S.P. Electronics_

.80

Silica Shop.

.12

SCI (UK) Ltd.

.6

Stack .

.15

Viglen .

.23

98

Personal Computing Today July 1984

MACHINE CODE

GAMES ACTION 8 !

Pure shoot-em-up arcade action for the 64
and unexpanded VIC! The Lunar city of
Erriam is under attack from the ships of
the Jovian empire. Their merciless
bombing will reduce your city to a
pile of rubble, unless you can
hold them off. You are the
commander of the sole laser
defence base. Your mis¬
sion - hold out for as
long as possible.

This best-selling gameforthe VIC-20 isnowavailableon
the 64! Featuring the most intelligent and devious
monsters you have ever tried to avoid, the Bonzos, this
game is a real joystick wrencher. Move Hans, the
handyman, up and down the ladders to pick up the boxes
from the different levels.

But don’t meet a Bonzo on the way!

You are an entrant in the great
Intergalactic Four Seasons Death
Race!. You must tackle the Spring,
Summer, Autumn and Winter
sections with the objective of
running as many other cars as
possible off the road. The op¬
position is numerous, including
the indestructable but slow Tank
Cars, the tricky Deathmobilesand
many other Demon Drivers. You
have one advantage - your car
can fly for a limited distance,
allowing you to avoid hazards if
you’re quick enough! All this and
more makes Burnin’ Rubber the
car race of the century!

BURNIN’ RUBBER

THE BEST FROGGY GAME FOR THE 64
BAR NONE!

WORD FEUD £7.95

This brilliantly conceived program combines the best
parts of arcade games with the best of educational
games, making a real family game that anyone who can
see the screen can participate in. You have to find the
word that is hidden twice in the jumble of letters, then
guide your sights over one of the occurrences of it.

The first to find it wins! You can play by yourself or in
teams against the computer, or against other
players. Three difficulty levels are included to suit
young and old alike!

THE MIND-BENDING STRATEGY
BOARD GAME OF OTHELLO!

It is the year 3000. Can you destroy each wave of Killer Robots as they
attack and rescue the Humanoid Survivor? Wave after wave of different
robots try to corner you in thef*Ga lactic Arena. Will you win? High
speed arcade action game. Full colour graphics with sound.

Machine Language.

AVAILABLE FOR:

COMMODORE 64-Tape £8 Disk £9.95; ATARI 16K-Tape £8 Disk £9.95; BBC MODEL B-Tape £8 Disk £9.95
ACORN ELECTRON-Tape £8; ORIC 16/48K-Tape £5.50; SPECTRUM 48K-Tape £5.50

Mail Order Sales from
Microdeal Mail Order 41 Truro Rd
St. Austell Cornwall PL25 5JE

Credit Card Sales |

Phone 0726 3456

Dealers Contact

MICRODEAL DISTRIBUTION
0726-3456
or WEBSTERS SOFTWARE
0483 62222

Selected Microdeal Titles available from computer dealers nationwide or from larger branches of